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Lincoln – Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis Produce an Extraordinary Movie

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Abraham LincolnLincoln is a must-see movie. Steven Spielberg has taken an  icon of history and explored him in a largely unknown situation that is sure to bring new insights into the complexities of both the man and the times. Abraham Lincoln is superbly played by Daniel Day-Lewis, whose performance is both disturbing in its believability and mesmerizing in its honest transcendence of the mythology that pervades our knowledge of the 16th President.

Lincoln is nominally based on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. While Goodwin’s epic book covers the entire period from Lincoln’s nomination to his assassination, the film focuses entirely on Lincoln’s fight to get the 13th Amendment – which bans slavery – through a contentious House of Representatives. He battles not only the Democrats who opposed the amendment, but the radical Republicans who felt it didn’t go far enough. All the while dealing with the reality that opposition to slavery did not equate with acceptance of full equality in all respects. This distinction plays out in a number of the relationships explored in the film.

Day-Lewis has magnificently captured Lincoln’s long periods of contemplation, ability to remain calm while others around him are reacting to every crisis, and a voice that may catch viewers by surprise but reflects the descriptions of Lincoln’s higher pitch and cadence. Day-Lewis successfully brings Lincoln to life as real person. No less superb is the acting of Sally Field as Mary Lincoln. Field offers us a deeper insight into the highs and lows of the woman who would help Lincoln reach his heights while bearing great burdens of her own.

The rest of the cast is equally stellar. David Strathairn as William Seward, Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens, and Hal Holbrook as Preston Blair all exquisitely add to the dimension of the film. In one scene where Robert Lincoln unexpectedly interrupts a critical discussion between Lincoln and Blair, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s non-verbal action in a span of a few seconds brilliantly conveys an entire history of the relationship between father and son. Likewise, the expression of Gloria Rueben as Elizabeth Keckley upon hearing Stevens’ speech reminds us that prejudice won’t be erased by a Constitutional amendment. The passions of David Oyelowo as Corporal Clark near the opening of the film bring us into the frustrations of the former slaves who, while fighting for the Union Army at the end of the war, must rely on the political gamesmanship of white men to decide whether they remain free or perhaps are returned to slavery.

The film works on many dimensions depending on your level of knowledge of the times. Some will see a great story being told, others the many layers of depth as the film explores the complex relationships between the major players and the wheeling and dealing that was required to get enough votes for passage of the amendment. Still others may see the parallels to our current situation.

I highly recommend everyone see this movie. You won’t regret it.

[Update: Lincoln received 12 Oscar nominations on January 10, 2013!]

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Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving

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Abraham LincolnAs Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln plays in the theaters and families gather to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, perhaps not everyone is aware that this day results from a Proclamation signed into law by our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln.

Issued in 1863 – in the midst of the civil war that was ravaging the nation – the Proclamation of Thanksgiving reminded us that we should be thankful for all we have, as life continued in this country even as so many were dying on the battlefields in a war that threatened to tear the country apart. Lincoln states:

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

The proclamation, which was actually written by Secretary of State William Seward before being signed by Abraham Lincoln, established the precedent for the annual day of thanksgiving on the federal level. Days of thanksgiving up to then were sporadic and set by the individual states, usually in the fall to offer thanks for the bounty of the harvest. Lincoln’s Proclamation sought to bring together all Americans – in the north and the south and the east and the west.

Today the fourth Thursday each November is set aside for all of us to give thanks for all with which we have been blessed. Abraham Lincoln remembered this during a time of great strife so it should be easy for us to remember all that we have gained since that era. With that spirit in mind I give thanks for all the wonderful people I have, and have had, in my life. Thank you all, and be well always.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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Happy Anniversary – Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln

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Abraham LincolnHappy Anniversary! On this date, November 4, 1842, Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd. They would remain married for more than 22 years until that fateful day our 16th President was assassinated in Ford’s Theater, his wife at his side. They had four sons, only one of whom, Robert, lived to adulthood.

From the beginning they were an odd pair. At 6’4″ in height and only about 180 pounds he was the spindle to her 5’2″ short – and in her post-childbirth years tending to plumpness – presence. He grew up poor while she grew up in wealthy elite family. And where he was self-educated “by littles,” she was well-schooled and could converse on many interesting topics in either English or French. Her family was against her marrying someone of a lower social caste, and encouraged her to give in to another suitor of the time – Stephen A. Douglas (who was closer to her in both height and education).

Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Todd and Abraham had a marriage that everyone else seemed to always have an opinion on, and mostly not a positive one. But they remained together through the tragedies of two sons dying young, a long period of non-political life in Springfield, and then a war that pitted brother against brother. In a bit of supreme irony Abraham’s life was snatched away just as the war was ending and the two were planning for both his second term and their post-presidency life back in Illinois.

On this 170th anniversary of their marriage let us remember how they stood together through the good times and the bad. While others may find many faults with their relationship, it seemed to work for them. And that is all that matters.

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Abraham Lincoln Book Review – The Oliver R. Barrett Lincoln Collection

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Abraham LincolnOf the estimated 15,000 or more books written about Abraham Lincoln, I have about 700 in my collection. As I do the research for my next book I have been reading some key tomes and came across a rather unique volume called The Immortal Autograph Letters…Lincolniana Collected by the Late Oliver R. Barrett.

This is a truly amazing book, for two reasons that I will get to in a moment.  The book is really the hard bound catalog of the public auction of the Oliver R. Barrett collection, a sale held in February 1952 by Parke-Bernet Galleries.  While that may sound a little dry, I assure you the book offers a wealth of historical information that is both insightful and exciting.

Oliver R. Barrett amassed a private collection of Abraham Lincoln that was second to no one.  After his death in the latter part of the first half of the 20th Century, a public auction was held of his collection.  This hard bound version of the catalog documents every one of the 842 items sold.  In the collection there are many documents, letters, manuscripts, portraits, personal relics, and a multitude of other “Lincolniana.”  Many are handwritten letters by Lincoln himself, others are letters by Secretary of State Seward, various Generals and other key players in the Civil War, and friends.  There are even letters from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee, and others in the Confederacy.  All of these documents, and associated photographs and relics, are presented and were sold in roughly chronological order, so one can read the summaries of each item and excerpts from important letters to experience the history of the 1850s leading up to Lincoln’s election, through the Civil War itself, and then the immediate reactions to Lincoln’s assassination.

The second feature that makes my particular copy of this book extraordinary is that one of the attendees of the auction has penciled in next to each and every item the sale price, and if known, the buyer.  To see what collectors paid for each item is a wonderful insight into the value people put on Lincoln almost 100 years after his death.  Most items sold for less than $100, but many sold in the hundreds to thousands of dollars.  The highest price paid for any one item was $35,000 for a series of 14 letters from Lincoln to his best friend Joshua Fry Speed.  The letters provide a rare insight into Lincoln’s personal feelings and friendships as Lincoln met Speed when he first moved to Springfield, Illinois to begin his law career and continued throughout his life.

The auction attendee has gone a step further and has at the end of the book written in pencil a table totaling the sale prices for each of the four sessions held over two days, and the grand total, which amounted to $273,632.50.  Keep in mind that this was in 1952 and in current dollars would amount to many millions of dollars.

I am privileged to own this first edition annotated copy.  I expected a rather dull list of items sold at auction, but what I found was an amazing insight into history.

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It’s Abraham Lincoln Group Night in Washington DC

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Abraham LincolnOnce a month I attend the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia. The non-profit group has been around for four score minus three years and is dedicated to sharing the history and study of Abraham Lincoln. As the longest continuously active Lincoln society in the United States the Lincoln Group of DC boasts some of the most notable Lincoln scholars extant.

Tonight’s dinner will be followed by a presentation on the Supreme Court and the Civil War by Roberta and Lydon Swartzendruber. These two scholars will…

…trace the origin and consequences of this conflict and explore the interactions between the full Supreme Court and the conduct of the war. During his tenure as president, Lincoln appointed five Supreme Court Justices. His appointments, his handling of the court, and the response of the court to the challenge of balancing civil liberties with the war powers of congress and the president, had important consequences for the outcome of the war and for the recovery of the nation following the war.

I’m looking forward to tonight’s event.

More information on the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia can be found on our web site.

More information on my Abraham Lincoln activities is on my Abraham Lincoln page.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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“Lincoln” Trailer – Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis do Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals”

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Abraham LincolnThe trailer for the long-awaited film on Abraham Lincoln directed by Steven Spielberg is now out and it portends an excellent movie to follow. Based on the best-selling book by Doris Kearns Goodwin called “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” the movie captures the tensions between the many strong wills – and many former rivals – sitting in Lincoln’s cabinet.

Goodwin’s book, which I will unequivocally state is one of the best books ever written on our 16th President, is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the dynamics between Lincoln, his cabinet, and the various factions in Congress that he fought as much as he fought the states in secession. Because of the book’s length (over 900 pages including notes), Spielberg’s Lincoln focuses on the final four months of the war, and as it turns out, of Lincoln’s life.

Lincoln is played by the amazing Daniel Day-Lewis, a two-time best actor Oscar winner for My Left Foot and There Will Be Blood. As a method actor that lives in character for the duration of filming, Lewis is expected to bring to life the inner Lincoln. Sally Field, another two-time Oscar winner, plays Mary Todd Lincoln. The rest of the cast is just as stellar, with sharp viewers also noting the presence of Hal Holbrook, who won an Emmy portraying Abraham Lincoln in a 1970s mini-series.

Given the presence of such distinguished actors, the directorial history of Steven Spielberg, and the truly magnificent book by Doris Kearns Goodwin, there are high expectations for the movie.

Fast Fact: Goodwin’s book was published in 2005, but Spielberg had already bought the film rights to it back in 2001 after Goodwin, who had been consulting on another Spielberg project, had told him of her intent to write the book. Goodwin had already won a Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for her earlier book on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

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Happy Birthday, Robert Todd Lincoln – Witness to Three Assassinated Presidents

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Robert Todd LincolnRobert Todd Lincoln turns 169 years old today. Or he would have if he hadn’t died 87 years ago at the age of 82. A very ripe old age that was quite unusual for his family. Father Abraham Lincoln was, of course, assassinated in 1865 at the age of 56. Robert was born in 1843, the oldest of Abe and Mary Todd’s four sons. But Robert was not only the first to be born, he was the last to die, and the only Lincoln child to even reach adulthood.

Second born Eddie lived only three years, dying from tuberculosis. Then there was Willie, who died in the White House at age eleven. Thomas – Tad – managed to recover from the same sickness that took his brother Willie, only to see his father’s life taken a few years later. Tad made it to the age of 18 before dying of heart failure, perhaps from the strain of his mother’s fragile mental state after the trauma of her husband’s demise.

Robert went on to great accomplishments in his own right. He served as Secretary of War under President’s Garfield and Arthur, then minister to the United Kingdom under President Benjamin Harrison. He then went on to be legal counsel to the Pullman railroad car company, and eventually became its president.

But perhaps the most interesting factoid is that Robert was either present or nearby at three Presidential assassinations. The first was his father’s, where he was nearby and came to see his father’s last hours. Then while serving as his Secretary of War he witnessed the assassination of President Garfield at the Sixth Street train station. And if that wasn’t enough, Robert was present at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York at the invitation of President William McKinley. McKinley was shot and killed. Robert is said to have refused any further presidential invitations after that, though I suspect Presidents also thought better about inviting him.

Robert was the only Lincoln son to have children, with the last drop of Lincoln lineage – “Bud” Beckwith, grandson to Robert – passing away in 1985.

Robert is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

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Collecting Abraham Lincoln Books – A Never Ending Joy

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Abraham LincolnOver the years I’ve collected hundreds of books about Abraham Lincoln, though with thousands of books written about him I have a long way to go before I run out of options.  Having the money to collect more and the shelf space to store more, well, those are different questions altogether.  As of this writing (5/25/12) I have 644 titles in my collection. However, a title could be multiple volumes. For example, my 10-volume set of Nicolay and Hay’s “Abraham Lincoln: A History” published in 1890 counts only as one “title.”

Some quick numbers:

111    =     Number of books signed by the author (many directly to me)

273    =    Number of confirmed first editions

80      =    Number of first editions that are signed by the author

62      =    Number of books that have pre-1900 copyright dates

1834  =    Oldest copyright date in my collection

Of course, others have a bigger collection than I do.  Recently the Ford’s Theatre Center for Education and Leadership unveiled its 34-foot tower of Lincoln books.  While the tower repeats 205 actual titles, it holds about 6,800 books – a fraction of the estimated 15,000 books written about Lincoln.

Ford's Theatre Lincoln book tower

Clearly I need to step up the pace of my book collecting.

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Abraham Lincoln’s Air Force – Balloons in the Civil War

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Who knew Abraham Lincoln had an air force during the Civil War?  Well, James L. Green knew.  And James L. Green is the authority on Abraham Lincoln’s balloon air force.  Jim’s fascination with Lincoln’s balloon corps goes back 30 years, and perhaps not surprisingly, Jim is the Director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA headquarters in Washington DC.  During this time he has conducted research into Civil War balloons and has spoken at a number of events.  Which is how I first met Jim – he presented Mr. Lincoln’s Air Force at the February 12th, 2012 meeting of the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia.

The most well known Civil War balloonist was Thaddeus S. Lowe, who took over the title of “Chief Aeronaut” when John Wise quit the job after First Bull Run. According to Jim, Lowe was a skillful manager and lobbyist who was able to drum up government support to “build seven balloons, 12 field gas generators, and a flat-topped balloon barge.”  The latter served as an “aircraft carrier” for launching his balloons into the skies over battlefields and along the Potomac River to keep an eye on Confederate troop movements. Jim’s account of “Civil War Ballooning During the Seven Days Campaign” is a fascinating read.

Under Lowe’s direction Lincoln’s Air Force gave a unique and fundamental advantage to the North.  Unfortunately, it only lasted for a short time.  In a dispute with the government, who was trying to reign in Lowe’s sometimes self-serving management style, Lowe quit. Without a champion the balloons ended up in a warehouse in DC and were never again employed in the War effort. A lapse that may have extended the length of the war.

I had the pleasure of joining Jim for lunch not long after his Lincoln Group presentation.  While I believe I have a large collection of books on Abraham Lincoln (650 titles and nearly 1000 volumes), I was humbled to learn that Jim has 1200 books about the Civil War.  Given my own interest in Lincoln’s fascination with science and technology (the book I’m currently working on) I asked Jim how much Lincoln was involved in the balloon corps.  Not surprisingly, Lincoln definitely favored this use of “modern” technology in the war effort.  How much and in what ways is something that Jim may address in the book he is preparing about Mr. Lincoln’s Air Force.

In the end Jim and I traded recommendations for books of interest from our collections and agreed to keep in touch.  Jim has been invited to speak at an event near Richmond in May and is working with the Civil War Trust to help identify locations of the balloon stations during the Peninsula Campaign.

To view Jim’s February 12, 2012 presentation to the Lincoln Group of DC, check out the YouTube video below.

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David J. Kent is the author of the forthcoming book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, scheduled for release in summer 2017. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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