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Daniel Wolff

goodreads author profile

url

http://www.goodreads.com/ziwolff

born

October 09, 1951

gender

male

place of birth

New York, The United States

genre

Nonfiction, Poetry, Arts & Photography

member since

September 2008

about this author

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Grammy-nominated author Danniel Wolff's latest book is "How Lincoln Learned to Read:" a look at a dozen great Americans and the educations that helped make them. His previous books include "4th of July/Asbury Park" and "You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke.""

8 posts
Daniel Wolff's Blog

HOW LINCOLN LEARNED TO READ in and out of Chicagoland

A week in the mid-west, doing readings and having discussions, reconfirms that this is the real pay-off from writing a book: the talk that follows, the agreements and disagreements, the issues raised. It’s like the book continues to be written – in public – person by person.
There was the school teacher, a veteran of twenty-plus years in the public system, who asserted (grey hair, pink... ...more

0 comments Published on November 09, 2009 06:24 | Tags: education, learning-, lincoln-

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books by Daniel Wolff

avg rating: 3.91 | 68 ratings | 22 reviews | 9 distinct works | 2 fans

	4th of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land by Daniel Wolff (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.82 — 17 ratings — published 2005 2 editions	my rating:
	How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them by Daniel Wolff (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.40 — 25 ratings — published 2009	my rating:
	Born to Run: The Unseen Photos by Bruce Springsteen, Daniel Wolff (Goodreads author) avg rating 4.46 — 13 ratings — published 2006 2 editions	my rating:
	The Memphis Blues Again: Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs by Ernest C. Withers, Daniel Wolff (Goodreads author) avg rating 4.40 — 5 ratings — published 2001	my rating:
	Pictures Tell the Story : Ernest C. Withers Reflections in History by Ernest C Withers, Daniel Wolff (Goodreads author) , Brooks Johnson avg rating 4.50 — 2 ratings — published 2000	my rating:
	Work Sonnets by Daniel Wolff (Goodreads author) avg rating 5.00 — 1 rating — published 2002	my rating:
	You Send Me: Life and Times of Sam Cooke by Daniel Wolff (Goodreads author) avg rating 0.0 — 0 ratings — published 1996 2 editions	my rating:
	Negro League Baseball by Ernest C. Withers, Daniel Wolff (Goodreads author) avg rating 0.0 — 0 ratings — published 2005	my rating:
	Born to Run by Eric Meola, Bruce Springsteen, Daniel Wolff (Goodreads author) (Introduction) avg rating 0.0 — 0 ratings — published 2006	my rating:

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	03/14 Daniel is currently reading: How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them (Hardcover) by Daniel Wolff (Goodreads author) bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
	Daniel said: "Ah, well ..... " add a comment

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November 09

Daniel Wolff wrote a new blog post:

HOW LINCOLN LEARNED TO READ in and out of Chicagoland

A week in the mid-west, doing readings and having discussions, reconfirms that this is the real pay-off from writing a book: the talk that follows, th... ...more

0 comments Published on November 09, 2009 06:24 | Tags: education, learning-, lincoln-

July 21

Daniel joined the Book Recommendations and History is Not Boring groups.

July 17

Daniel made a comment in the group History is Not Boring—HOW LINCOLN LEARNED TO READ topic:

Daniel wrote: "Good point! Certainly, the book covers Irish and British immigrants but not non-English-speaking one...more "

June 13

Daniel made a comment in the group Educator Book Club—HOW LINCOLN LEARNED TO READ topic:

Daniel wrote: "

HOW LINCOLN LEARNED TO READ in the Mid-west

Printers Row Literary Festival runs three or four b...more

HOW LINCOLN LEARNED TO READ in the Mid-west

Printers Row Literary Festival runs three or four blocks in downtown Chicago: tents for booksellers, microphones for readers, a milling crowd flipping through sci fi, poetry, radical lit, and old postcards.
Kind of an extended outdoor library. With everything for sale.
Nice to see so many folks out even in slightly chilly, damp weather. Here’s a way to learn, right? Even if you don’t buy, you touch the covers, get some sense of what’s out there and available, feel that excitement of all the stuff you might read. Browsing = learning?
Our panel is called “The Art of the Biographer,” and there are four of us, sitting at a long table up front, with a moderator. It’s like a classroom: a packed classroom, 65-70 people. Each of us speaks for five minutes or so -- quick pitches: “Why You Should Buy My Book” – and then it ought to be time for questions from the audience.
Instead, the moderator asks us about process. And it begins to feel even more like a classroom. Or a school board meeting.
The theory seems to be that the longer the people up front keep talking, the less trouble there’ll be. We are supposedly the articulate ones; Q&A’s can get messy; the moderator wants us to talk just a little bit more about our “art.”
I wonder afterwards why it makes me feel so uncomfortable. I think it’s not only that we’re supposed to be the teachers, lecturing the crowd, but also that under the guise of being interesting and informative, we’re actually trying to sell. Our books. Which is to say, our perspectives.
How much of teaching ends up like this, inadvertently or not: selling a certain way of looking at things? Keeping the conversation closed.
Turns out that during the hour the panel lasts, there never is time for the audience to speak. It’s too bad. After this last string of How Lincoln Learned readings, I’m even more convinced that discussion is key. Without it, you may get more “information,” but you lose out on the humor, surprise, sadness, fun.
(less) "

May 28

Daniel made a comment on itpdx's vote on Books for 2009:

Daniel wrote: "Thanks Kathleen!

D Wolff "

May 14

Daniel made a comment in the group Educator Book Club—Free Schools and Free School Ideology - what is it all about? topic:

Daniel wrote: "Don't know if my book would help in this discussion, but it offers an historical look at how folks h...more Don't know if my book would help in this discussion, but it offers an historical look at how folks have learned -- both inside an doutside the classroom. Here's the Kirkus review:

STARRED) Wolff, Daniel

HOW LINCOLN LEARNED TO READ: Twelve Great Americans and the Education That Made Them

A riveting, original examination of education inside and outside the classroom.

What makes this work particularly captivating is that music historian Wolff (4th of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land, 2005, etc.) doesn’t focus primarily on the book learning acquired by a dozen Americans, from Benjamin Franklin to Elvis Presley. Rather, his interest is in how they learned—that is, the life experiences that helped transform them into the figures they became. Taught to read by his mother at home, Abraham Lincoln received little in the way of formal education. His unquenchable thirst for knowledge and constant search for new ideas led him to read widely on his own, notes Wolff, who quotes Lincoln declaring, “I remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way that I could not understand.” Automotive pioneer Henry Ford, on the other hand, had little patience for books (“they mess up my mind,” he wrote) but loved to work with his hands, which in turn led to a lifelong love of engineering. Helen Keller excelled, the author convincingly argues, because she was allowed to create her own curriculum with teacher Annie Sullivan. John F. Kennedy, a poor student in prep school, learned how to be a leader by forming an on-campus club of rebels and iconoclasts. Wolff delves into the education of other prominent figures, including Andrew Jackson, W.E.B. Du Bois and Rachel Carson, but also looks at such lesser-known Americans as a slave named Belle and Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, a Native American schoolteacher in the 19th century. Their stories attest that learning doesn’t just happen in a schoolhouse, and life itself may well be the most effective teacher of the most important lessons.

Well thought-out, well-argued and thoroughly engaging.

(less) "

April 29

Daniel made a comment on Amy's review of How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them

Daniel wrote: "Amy:

All kind of you! I want to get this book out to as many folks as possible. THEN, mebbe, consid...more "

see all 3 comments

Daniel read and liked Amy's review of How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them:

"I enjoyed this book because I felt like I was reading my own family history - as a member of the United states family. All of the people Wolff writes about are presented in context with one another - and yet it isn't boring at all. I appreciate the...more "

3 comments

March 23

Daniel said "yes" to attending the event: HOW LINCOLN LEARNED TO READ.
date: April 08, 2009 07:00PM
location: RiverRun Books, Portsmouth, NH, The United States
description: You'd be a fool not to come.

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HOW LINCOLN LEARNED TO READ
Daniel Wolff — How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great American...
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Teaser on the book. And swell tune.

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The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL SUMMER CHALLENGE 2009	6765	9636	Aug 31, 2009 10:23PM

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