Book Alert / Lincoln -- The Biography of a Writer

Lincoln -- The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan, Harper '08, $27.95, 406 pages, ISBN #0060773340. Index, source notes, no bibliography or illustrations.

Fifty years from now, history will size up Barack Obama against other presidents as a wordsmith. Based alone on his pre-presidential writings -- his two books, perhaps his Philadelphia speech on race, without even waiting to hear his inaugural address, it seems likely that he'll rank in the top half-dozen in his sense of composition, nuance, description, and persuasion, right up there with Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Ulysses Grant.

Oh, and that log-splitter from Illinois as well. In his new book, biographer Fred Kaplan describes how important language was to Abe Lincoln, how this autodidact taught himself to read and write, and how he employed the mobilization of language to move crowds. He describes how Lincoln devoured the works of such great writers as Byron, Burns and Shakespeare and how insights and constructions gained therein shaped his own writing.

"Lincoln was also the last president whose character and standards in the use of language avoided the distortions and other dishonest uses of language that have done so much to undermine the creidibility of national leaders," Kaplan writes. "The ability and commitment to use language honestly and consistently have largely disappeared from our political discourse."

While some presidents have respected language enough to hire top-notch speechwriters, says Kaplan, "....the challenge of a president himself struggling to find the language that respects intellect, truth, and sincerity, has largely been abandoned."