Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

 

Bibliographical citation:  Freedman, R. (1987). Lincoln: A Photobiography. New York: Clarion Books. 150 pages. ISBN: 9780899193809.

Awards: ALA Notable Children's Books (1995), Newbery Medal (1988)

Author's website: none

Annotation: This comprehensive and inspiring study of Lincoln encompasses more than just facts about his childhood, family, marriage and time as President.  Freedman's expressive and meaningful words give readers insight into both the heart and mind of this most remarkable man.
 

Personal Reaction: I never realized until reading this book how little I knew about Abraham Lincoln.  Sure, he is on the front of our $5 dollar bill, was one of our most famous presidents, and as students most of us had to memorize his speech, "Four score and seven years ago," but what were we really taught about the man himself?  In this photobiography, Russell Freedman woos readers and really gets down to the essentials on Lincoln.  I learned that Lincoln was very poor growing up and worked hard at all sorts of physical labor in order to help support his family-chopping wood, helping farmers at all sorts of odd jobs to earn money, and helping his father build their home.  He was very strong physically, but also had a strong determination and willingness to push himself forward in life. Freedman's narrative pulled me in as a reader not only mentally, but emotionally.  While reading and listening to this biography, I fell in love with Lincoln the man.  He had little formal education and most of what he learned is what he taught himself by copying from books and through extensive studying. Lincoln earned his law degree by reading law books and studying them. 

Many don't know of Lincoln's bouts of melancholy and depression that he struggled with all of his life.  When he finally fell in love, he fell hard.  The woman he loved, Mary Todd, was from a very different social stratosphere than Lincoln.  Her family did not approve of their initial courtship because of the extreme social differences and was able to break them apart.  This caused Lincoln to fall into a time of deep depression, one of the worst of his life.  However, that separation lasted less than two years when against the Todd family's wishes, Lincoln and Mary resumed their relationship and got married. 

Lincoln's time in office as President was very difficult because of the onset of the Civil War. He was hated by many, especially in the South where they wanted slavery and the Confederacy to remain.  Lincoln worked hard to convince members of his cabinet to agree to an amendment to the Constitution that would free our country from slavery forever, especially since he knew that his wartime Emancipation decree could be easily overturned once the war ended.  Although the war was initially started in order to save the Union, Lincoln realized that the only way for our country to continue would be for the division of the country and slavery to end.  It was to this end that he worked, and he encountered many struggles in making decisions during this time.  During his life Lincoln also suffered many personal hardships, most specifically, the deaths of two sons.

Since I alternated between reading this text and listening to the audio book version, I was able to enjoy an interview of the author, Russell Freedman, at the end of the audio book.  What I found most interesting about this was Freedman's account that Lincoln hated writing but it was something that he persisted in doing anyway.  All of his speeches were ones that he wrote (no speech writers back then, not for Lincoln, anyway), and upon reading and listening to many of them, I find it surprising that writing was not something he enjoyed since he was so talented and inspired many with his words.  Freedman stated that it was common practice for Lincoln to have written many, many drafts of his speeches and he revised them often, sometimes right before he went up on a platform to present one. This text also includes so many important photographic images of Lincoln throughout his life, his family and friends, and many pictures documenting the Civil War. 

Front/Back Matter: Table of Contents, In Lincoln's Footsteps, Books About Lincoln, Acknowledgements and Picture Credits, Index.

*Bibliographical citation information, award information, as well as image retrieved from www.bwibooks.com (Titletales).