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Summary: Historical Poetry
Review: Anyone who loves either Lincoln or Whitman will find themselves in their world. Epstein commands an amazing knowledge of place and time, transporting the reader back to Civil War America. He does so with great humanity and depth. This book was an experience I will never forget.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Poetry
Review: Anyone who loves either Lincoln or Whitman will find themselves in their world. Epstein commands an amazing knowledge of place and time, transporting the reader back to Civil War America. He does so with great humanity and depth. This book was an experience I will never forget.
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Summary: Lincoln and Whitman : Parallel lives in Civil War Washington
Review: Beginning with Abraham Lincoln's fascination with Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, the author uses Lincoln's activities in the nation's capital as a backdrop for the story of Whitman's life there during the Civil War. Working as a copy clerk, Whitman spent most of his free time comforting wounded Union soldiers. A dedicated Lincoln admirer, he also planned his walks around the city to coincide with the President's carriage rides, often waving to Lincoln as he watched him pass. The closest the poet came to the President was to see him from an adjoining room in the White House. As Whitman published his book of poetry Drum-Taps, Lincoln was assassinated. Whitman's grief led to his poems "When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom'd" and "O Captain, My Captain." Both are included here, along with brief interpretations. The author's premise that there is value in juxtaposing the lives of a famous president and a poet is not supported. There is not enough evidence of a strong connection between the two men to warrant a book on the subject. Epstein (author of biographies of Aimee Semple McPherson, Nat King Cole, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, as well as a number of books of poetry) emphasizes literary aspects rather than historical ones. A marginal purchase that only libraries with Whitman collections need consider.
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Summary: what more to say
Review: Can't add much to these reviews except to say that this book brought tears to my eyes.
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Summary: Civil War with anew angle
Review: I have read numerous Lincoln books and they basically tell the same stories I've read before. This book is very different. The author is able to weave Lincoln's and Whitman's lives together even though they never met. Some of the comparisons between Lincoln's speeches and Whitman's writings are uncanny. The author also provides a refreshing, intimate view of Washington life during this period - the politics, famous people, events, day to day life, not to mention how to get a government job. Obviously you can see that I am not a book reviewer, but I have to recommend this book. The fusion of history and poetry duirng this difficult time is fasinating. I just wish these two great men (with their flaws) could have sat down at one point and actually talked. Oh what a story that would have been! Also thanks for helping me better understand Whitman.
Rating:
Summary: Civil War with anew angle
Review: I have read numerous Lincoln books and they basically tell the same stories I've read before. This book is very different. The author is able to weave Lincoln's and Whitman's lives together even though they never met. Some of the comparisons between Lincoln's speeches and Whitman's writings are uncanny. The author also provides a refreshing, intimate view of Washington life during this period - the politics, famous people, events, day to day life, not to mention how to get a government job. Obviously you can see that I am not a book reviewer, but I have to recommend this book. The fusion of history and poetry duirng this difficult time is fasinating. I just wish these two great men (with their flaws) could have sat down at one point and actually talked. Oh what a story that would have been! Also thanks for helping me better understand Whitman.
Rating: 
Summary: Can't find focus
Review: I read a brief, positive blurb about this book in the New Yorker and picked it up. I figured, what's not to like? Although Epstein is a pretty good storyteller, he can't really figure out what he wants to do in this book. Sometimes he's kind of doing a comparative textual analysis of Whitman's poetry and Lincoln's speeches, sometimes he's looking at spots of time where their lives intersect, sometimes he's doing completely independent biographical studies of these two men, and sometimes he's doing other stuff altogether. The results are fragmented, messy, disorienting. There are sections that, on their own, are quite interesting, but the book never delivers anything whole, and it certainly never delivers what it promises in its title. My recommendation to readers is to pick up individual authoritative biographies of each of these men, and let your mind do its own comparative work.
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Summary: Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel lives in Civil War Washington
Review: This book is about Walt Whitman's relationship with Abraham Lincoln. The two never formally met, yet both were profoundly influenced by the other.
At times it was hard to decide if Epstein was writing history, historical fiction, or a literature book. He seamlessly weaves Whitman's poetry into his narrative and discusses the roots of the imagery the poet used. I found the Whitman portrayed by Epstein to be a fascinating, unusual person indeed.
If you are seeking general information about Lincoln, this is not the book for you. If you are a Lincoln admirer who wants a new perspective on the president and the times he lived in, I would encourage you to read this book. If you are interested in Walt Whitman, this book is a must-read as it is important both from the biographical and literary stand-point.
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Summary: A New Classic
Review: This double biography of two great Americans is a narrative tour-de-force, a compelling page-turner built on a rock-solid foundation of meticulous research. Epstein deftly weaves together the lives of the poet and the President, setting each character in bold relief against the richly-described backdrop of the Civil War. The original approach is a great contribution to literary and historical scholarship, showing each of these iconic figures in a revelatory new light. Many have described how Lincoln inspired some of Whitman's greatest poetry. Epstein is THE FIRST to make a persuasive argument -- by ingenious historical analysis and insightful comparison of passages from "Leaves of Grass" and Lincoln's speeches -- that the poet influenced the President. This book belongs on the shelf next to Gary Wills' Pulitzer-prize winning "Lincoln at Gettysburg."
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Summary: A Moving Portrait of Greatness
Review: This is a profoundly moving work, which should be read with pleasure by any admirer of the Great Emancipator or America's Great Poet. Although Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman are dead, their spirits live; and in this volume, Daniel Mark Epstein has again clothed them in flesh and blood and restored the breath of life. You will find yourself in the Lincoln and Herndon law office in 1857 as the merits of Leaves Of Grass are debated by the law partners and their young clerks; you will stand alongside Whitman on the corner of Fourteenth and L streets in Washington in 1863 as he awaits the president and the opportunity to offer a friendly wave.As far as history knows, the two men never formally met, though they came tantalizingly close to doing so on more than one occasion. Yet as Epstein notes in the subtitle of this book, they lived parallel lives in Civil War Washington. While Lincoln struggled to hold the union together, Whitman tenderly nursed the young men who were maimed by the tens of thousands on the great battlefields of that war. While Lincoln struggled with the insurgency in his own ranks from Treasury Secretary Samuel Chase, Whitman vainly pursued a federal job in the secretary's domain. Although Whitman had already created the bulk of his greatest works by 1865, the death of Lincoln provided the well-spring for a glorious last hurrah, including the grand panorama of "When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd" and the poet's best known offspring, "O Captain, My Captain." Indeed, the assassination only strengthened the bond linking these two men of genius. Especially poignant is the last chapter, which takes place 22 years after Booth's dark deed. Whitman presents a talk on Lincoln at the Madison Square Theater to an audience that includes luminaries such as Mark Twain and William Dean Howells. Playing out at the same moment was one of the afterwords of Lincoln's earthly life, as his casket was moved, opened and reburied at his final resting place in Springfield. Epstein brings an historian's skill and a poet's passion to this work. Read this book with an open mind and an open heart, and be ready to appreciate the great souls that sometimes walk alongside us.--William C. Hall
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