Wednesday, November 02, 2011
 
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2 authors to sign Lincoln books Nov. 19 at presidential museum store

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[November 02, 2011]  SPRINGFIELD -- The selling of Lincoln in contemporary America and the recollections of people who actually knew Abraham Lincoln are the subjects of two recent books, and the authors will sign books and meet the public on Nov. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum Gift Shop.

"Lincoln, Inc.: Selling the Sixteenth President in Contemporary America" was written by Jackie Hogan, professor of sociology at Bradley University. From Lincoln-themed cocktails and waffle-parlors to high-tech museums and steamy romance novels, the image of Abraham Lincoln so permeates the national imagination that we now find him in the unlikeliest of places. In "Lincoln, Inc.," Hogan examines the uses (and abuses) of the 16th president in the United States today. The book takes readers on a journey through Lincoln tourism and offers a front-row seat as the martyr president is invoked in heated political debates over such issues as homosexuality, abortion and the war on terror. Readers step into the alternate universe of Lincoln fiction that transforms the Rail Splitter, by turns, into a hapless time-traveler, a sentimental cyborg, an ax-wielding zombie slayer or a frontier heartthrob. Hogan shows how the use of the Lincoln image reveals the nation's shared fears and fascinations.

"Lincoln in his own time: A biographical chronicle of his life, drawn from recollections, interviews, and memoirs by family, friends, and associates" was written by Harold Bush, professor of English at St. Louis University. The 42 entries in this spirited collection present the best reflections of Lincoln as thinker, reader, writer and orator by those whose lives intertwined with his or those who had direct contact with eyewitnesses. Bush focuses on Lincoln's literary interests, reading and work as a writer, as well as the evolving debate about his religious views that became central to his memory. Along with a star-struck Walt Whitman writing of Lincoln's "inexpressibly sweet" face and manner, Elizabeth Keckly's description of a bereaved Lincoln, "genius and greatness weeping over love's idol lost," and William Stoddard's report of the "cheery, hopeful, morning light" on Lincoln's face after a long night debating the fate of the nation, the volume includes selections from works by famous contemporary figures such as Hawthorne, Douglass, Stowe, Lowell, Twain and Lincoln himself in addition to lesser-known selections that have been nearly lost to history.

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Copies of each book may be purchased in the gift shop. No admission fee is required to attend the Nov. 19 book signing.

For more information about the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, visit www.presidentlincoln.org.

[Text from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum file]

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