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Article: Lincoln the literary leader
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- February 15, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (c) 2009 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc. (Hide copyright information)
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LINCOLN
THE BIOGRAPHY OF A WRITER
By Fred Kaplan
HarperCollins, 406 pages, $27.95
You can throw the image right out the window (if there even was a window).
Young Abe Lincoln, reading by firelight in the one-room log cabin, may be one of our most cherished scenes. But, according to Fred Kaplan in Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, Lincoln never would have been able to concentrate. There were seven other people living in that single room.
Reading must have been a challenge for Lincoln, who had to find the time (amid his chores), the space (outside) and the light to get at his books.
He more than managed, however, even in a culture that offered little reward for intellectual curiosity. ...