Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel lives in Civil War Washington

by Daniel Mark Epstein

It was more than coincidence—indeed, it was all but fate—that the lives and thoughts of Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman should converge during the terrible years of the Civil War. Kindred spirits despite their profound differences in position and circumstance, Lincoln and Whitman shared a vision of the democratic character that sprang from the deepest part of their being. They had read or listened to each other’s words at crucial turning points in their lives. Both were utterly transformed by the tragedy of the war. In this radiant book, poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein tracks the parallel lives of these two titans from the day that Lincoln first read Leaves of Grass to the elegy Whitman composed after Lincoln’s assassination in 1865.

Drawing on the rich trove of personal and newspaper accounts, diary records, and lore that has accumulated around both the president and the poet, Epstein structures his double portrait in a series of dramatic, atmospheric scenes. Whitman, though initially skeptical of the Illinois Republican, became enthralled when Lincoln stopped in New York on the way to his first inauguration. During the war years, after Whitman moved to Washington to minister to wounded soldiers, the poet’s devotion to the president developed into a passion bordering on obsession. “Lincoln is particularly my man, and by the same token, I am Lincoln’s man.”

As Epstein shows, the influence and reverence flowed both ways. Lincoln had been deeply immersed in Whitman’s verse when he wrote his incendiary “House Divided” speech, and Whitman remained an influence during the darkest years of the war. But their mutual impact went beyond the intellectual. Epstein brings to life the many friends and contacts his heroes shared—Lincoln’s debonair private secretary John Hay, the fiery abolitionist senator Charles Sumner, the mysterious and possibly dangerous Polish Count Gurowski—as he unfolds the story of their legendary encounters in New York City and especially Washington during the war years.

Blending history, biography, and a deeply informed appreciation of Whitman’s verse and Lincoln’s rhetoric, Epstein has written a masterful and original portrait of two great men and the era they shaped through the vision they held in common.

Genres: History, Civil War, Biography, Nonfiction, Presidents, American History, Poetry

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Fred Klein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting parallel biography of Lincoln and Whitman. They don't actually meet, but influence each other. I'm more into history than poetry, and there is some discussion of Whitman's poetry and some passages from his poems. Add a star if you like both history and poetry, and then add another star if you like Whitman's poetry in particular.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the implied conceit of the title, the two men apparently never met. However, Epstein makes a good case that both men were definitely aware of each other, and possibly influenced each other's respective lives (Lincoln influencing Whitman much more, however). An interesting account of several years of two of the 19th century's towering figures, and how the Civil War affected both men.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much to my regret, this book felt rather unsatisfying. It tries to be a dual biography of Lincoln and Whitman, president and poet, and meanwhile connecting the two lives. Its subtitle is "parallel lives in Washington," and right out of the gate it missed the mark for me. Lincoln, we learn, had a copy of Whitman's Leaves of Grass in the office, and often read in it. Epstein then suggests that Whitman inspired some of Lincoln's writing, which he tries to substantiate with unconvincing quotations.

The Civil War brought both men to Washington, DC, where they did not actually meet, but they glanced at one another when Whitman stood on a corner as Lincoln's barouche passed on its way from the White House to the Soldier's Home, north of the city. Their separate lives are elaborated on in alternate chapters. The epilogue, then, is about a speech Whitman held about Lincoln, in April of 1887, on the 22nd anniversary of the assassination. It was moving, Epstein writes, and the crowd was filled with well-known authors, general William Tecumseh Sherman, and John Hay.

All in all, this was an odd volume, for it was neither fully about "lives in Washington," nor about Whitman or Lincoln. It was too little of too much to me.

[Nicole Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book as a gift to myself after graduating from college in 2007. I’ve carried it around since always meaning to read it (while I lived in DC would have been a good time…) and I finally did.

Another friend of mine recently told me she’s been waiting to write her book reviews to see what really sticks, I didn’t wait for that reason, but I find myself penning this review quite some time after finishing reading the book. Here is what “stuck”

It is interesting how much lives can overlap without the two people officially connecting. Perhaps we only get to see this when those two people are either close to us personally or famous. But how many lives am I interconnected with without knowing our mutual impact on each other? This idea motivates me to be a little kinder, to look for ways to reach out, to strive to be the kind of person I want to be more fully.

Seeing all the ways these two men were (or likely were) interconnected was pretty cool.

Quotes:
• The competition rapidly escalated from a war of words and ballots to one of guns and swords. (pxiv)
• And he would read, aloud. He read newspapers and books, always aloud, much to the annoyance of his partner, who found the high, tuneful voice, with its chuckling interludes and asides, a distraction from the warrants and writs and invoices. Herndon once asked Lincoln why he had to read aloud, and the forty-eight-year-old ex-Congressman explained: “Two senses catch the idea: first I see what I read; second I hear it, and therefore I can remember it better.” (p5)
• “I am the poet of commonsense and the demonstrable every man and woman is so, / Only what nobody denies is so.” ((p14)
• Lincoln’s early successes in debating, in the courtroom, and “on the stump” —campaigning for himself or his colleagues—resulted from his spellbinding powers as a storyteller and his mastery of logical demonstration and analysis. The “rail-splitter” was a first-class logic-chopper. (p15)
• In their ways, these talks [speeches given dismantling Douglas’s arguments for the Kansas-Nebraska act] are quite convincing. Yet they do not seize the imagination; they do not resonate. Lincoln had learned to draw up a clear demonstration of a just principle, and the slavery controversy had motivated him. But he had yet to develop that lyric eloquence for which he is now remembered. (p17)
• Indeed, for anyone interested in Lincoln’s intellectual progress, all three of these speeches—the speech answering Douglas on June 26, 1857; the “First Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions,” delivered on April 6, 1858; and finally the “House Divided” speech of June 16, 1858—are crucial. For nearly two years the intriguing orator gave only these few addresses, and each shows us a different aspect of his mind. (p31)
• And how convenient, because “One always has the tongue with him [unlike pen paper], and the breath of his life is the ever-ready material with which it works.”
Speech may be God’s gift, but “writing—the art of communicating thoughts to the mind, through the eye—is the great invention of the world. Great in the astonishing range of analysis and combination . . . great in enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn, at all distances of time and of space . . .” (p33)
• “Towering genius disdains a beaten path . . . It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief . . It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen.” He was cautioning the young men against “the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch,” in other words, a person just like himself. Lincoln had been born with the makings of a tyrant or a rebel angel. If such a man has any conscience, he faces agonizing moral choices. (p38-39)
• Only good can drive out evil, and injustice must sooner or later sink of its own weight. Embracing the parable, Lincoln had dedicated himself to truth and justice, refusing to use deceit even in championing a good cause, even under the pressure of ambition to advance his career or increase his personal fortune. “Honest Abe” was not a myth or a publicit’s gimmick; it was a model of American folk virtue in tireless action. (p39)
• Lincoln had turned a corner back in 1857. He had developed the power to raise his oratory to the level of dramatic poetry wherever the occasion called for it. (p43)
• “Everything appertaining to them is a study, perhaps even a fascination, if once you begin to see it.” (p45)
• A large man, Whitman gave the impression of great vigor, though he moved slowly. (p52)
• The editor was away ahead of his time, grasping the potential of marketing in democratizing commerce—even in literature and the arts. “Everything succeeds if money enough is spent on it,” he said. (p55)
• But these were times when no man who loved his country dared ignore politics. In two years the conflict between Democrats and Republicans over slavery, as expressed by Lincoln and Douglas in their debates, had escalated to the verge of civil war. (p57)
• Great actors are not always classic beauties, but their faces have one thing in common: their features are prominent and generously spaced. Large eyes, set well apart, high cheekbones, and long nose and chin are typical. Without such equipment one cannot carry emotions beyond the footlights. Lincoln was not handsome. But he had the features of a professional actor, and they responded with maximum mobility to inner and outer stimuli, delights, sorrow, or subtle wit. He could raise and lower his bushy eyebrows in mock surprise or deadly menace, or lift one eyebrow in doubt or before delivering the punch line of a joke. The mouth was beautifully shaped, the full underlip conveying his compassion, the firm upper lip his strength of purpose. His smile was famous, incandescent, a Frans Hals smile that lit up the gray eyes and drew up the cheeks, drawing back the deep-cut lines that flared from his nose to the corners of his mouth and bracketed his chin. And his grin seemed all the more brilliant when it suddenly broke from behind the clouds of gloom for which the man was equally known. (p59)
• “There is nothing that can ever bring me willingly to consent to the destruction of this Union, under which . . . the whole country has acquired its greatness, unless it were to be that thing for which the Union itself was made.” The statement was afloat in ambiguity. (p69)
• The poet had found a new vocation; or rather, he renewed the passion that he had first discovered among the wounded stage drivers in New York Hospital. (p87)
• They were Elective Affinities—the poet as public servant, the President as dramatic poet. The compounds of the two personalities had “exchanged” essential elements. (p90)
• His appearance was splendid, his vanity transparent. Sumner took pride in his long and shapely hands, especially their whiteness; in the Senate he would lean back his chair, his head slightly inclined over his broad chest, and study his hands as they rested upon his crossed knees. (p108-109)
• Henry Adams said that Sumner’s mind by 1863 “had reached the calm of water which receives and reflects images without absorbing them; it contains nothing but itself.” It was Adams’ gentlest way of calling Sumner a narcissist. (p109)
• More than anything there was the waiting, so the room was heavy with anxiety, dread, and boredom, which sooner or later took its toll on hope. (p110)
• He would not have missed her so much these days if she had not been such a comforting presence in his life before her descent into madness. (p117)
• Knowing the precarious state of his wife’s nerves, Lincoln did not burden her with his troubles. (p119)
• “A man’s family is the people who love him—the people who comprehend him.” -Whitman (p124)
• Much of Whitman’s time was taken up writing letters for men without the strength, education, or hands to write their own. (p126)
• It was an intimacy that Whitman craved. The wrote: “These thousands and tens and twenties of thousands of American young man, badly wounded, all sorts of wounds, operated on, pallid with diarrhea, languishing, dying with fever, pneumonia . . . open a new world somehow to me, giving closer insights, new things, exploring deeper mines than any yet, showing our humanity.” (p127)
• Above all of it was the gift of his kind presence that the soldiers valued. He told his mother, “the reason I am able to do some good in the hospitals, among the poor languishing & wounded boys, is that I am so large and well—indeed like a great wild buffalo, with much hair.” (p129)
• In his [Whitman’s] little book Memoranda During the War he recalled, “it was in the simple matter of Personal Presence, and emanating ordinary cheer and magnetism, that I succeeded and help’d more than by medical nursing, or delicacies, or gifts or money, or anything else.” He prepared for his visits by fortifying himself with a nap, a bath, “clean clothes, a good meal, and as cheerful an appearance as possible.” (p130)
• He [Whitman] also confided to Nellie that he “did not envy men their wives, but he did envy them their children.” Years later she recalled a day the two were walking along the street, and a little girl—a total stranger—smiled at Whitman and said, “I know you.” Upon which he returned her smile and responded, “I wish I knew you.” (p134)
• His strengths as a poet were consonant with his weaknesses as a man. Inspired, he could rise to the heights of prophecy, but he could also descend into foolish self-deception. He never considered that as grateful as the boys were for his kindness, he was part of a nightmare most of them wanted to forget. (p1238)
• “The wounded are getting to be common,” Whitman observed, “and people grow callous.” (p144)
• With his kind voice and winning smile, he knew the art of “temporing unreasonable aspirations,” as one newsman put it, and “giving to disappointed ambitions the soft answer which turneth away wrath.” To a woman weeping he might offer his handkerchief; for a gentleman, on a hot day, he might fetch a glass of water. It was this young aide who made the White House appear a generous, humane stronghold, a sanctuary for yearning or distressed visitors during wartime. (p149)
• “If they kill me [Lincoln], the next man will be just as bad for them; and in a country like this, where our habits are simple, and must be, assassination is always possible, and will come if they are determined upon it.” What some considered the President’s bravery, his nonchalance about his safety, others called rashness. (p155)
• The summer before, while Lincoln was riding on horseback alone on the toll road to the Soldiers’ Home, at eleven at night, a would-be assassin shot a hole through the President’s stovepipe hat. Lincoln made a funny story out of it, which Lamon did not think was a bit funny. (p156)
• “I pity him! Mr. Lincoln’s looks are those of a man whose nights are sleepless, and whose days are comfortless. That is the price for greatness to which he is not equal. Yet Mr. Lincoln, they say, wishes to be re-elected!” -Gurowski (p159)
• Lincoln was amused by what he called Chase’s “voracious desire for office . . . from which I am not free myself,” and said the Secretary was like “a horsefly on the neck of a plowhorse.” But Chase was more than a nuisance. He spread stories about Lincoln’s military blunders and his naivete about finance. He enlarged the myth that Lincoln was a pawn of Secretary of State Seward and big-money interests in New York. Chase challenged the President’s policies at every turn, while filling Treasury posts with sycophants who would electioneer on his behalf. (p186-187)
• Years later Whitman told a biographer: “I was always between two loves at that time—I wanted to be in New York; I had to be in Washington. I was never in the one place but I was restless for the other.” He meant that his vocation in Washington (“It was a religion with me”) had become his guiding star, his master, superseding his devotion to his family. But he never admitted that he left Brooklyn in part for the same reason his brother George enlisted in the Thirteenth Regiment: the crowded family home on Portland Avenue was bedlam, a sinkhole more threatening to the healthy brothers than the War of the Rebellion. (p190)
• The two writers shared a sense of humor, a delight in wordplay, and admiration of Emerson. Whitman told Trowbridge that when he had worked as a carpenter he carried a volume of Emerson in his lunch pail, and read about the “Over-Soul” and “Spiritual Laws” while seated on a pile of boards, taking his noon meal. Emerson had helped Whitman find himself. To Trowbridge the poet confided, “I was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil.” By the time Whitman left Boston, Trowbridge felt that “a large, new friendship had shed a glow on my life.” (p192)
• I onward go, I stop.
With hinged knees and steady hand, to dress wounds;
I am firm with each—the pangs are sharp, yet unavoidable;
One turns to me his appealing eyes—(poor boy! I never knew you,
Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you.) (p200)
• Salmon Chase replied that he was happy to do for his friends the sort of things he was constantly asked to do for strangers. (p202-203)
• The novelist had tangled himself in his own web, covering an old lie with a new one. (p205)
• Lincoln, with his uncanny political instincts, may have sensed that Chase or his men would overdo things. When he found himself bewildered about how to handle a problem, Lincoln’s style was to sit back and wait it out. So he waited for Chase to blunder. In all fairness, it was not Chase who blundered—it was his “committee.” The Chase-for-president committee might have been an inspiration for the Keystone Cops or the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. As the dignified candidate looked on in horror, they sank his promising campaign in only six weeks, eight full months in advance of the election. (p207)
• Yet he [Lincoln] was bound to be reelected. Ambition had lured him into the marble mansion, and how his sense of duty had trapped him there. (p212)
• Fact or myth, the story endures. It has earned an important place in the Lincoln-Whitman dossier because the poet so passionately loved and believed it. (p213)
• “I see the President often. I think better of him than many do. He has conscience & homely shrewdness—conceals an enormous tenacity under his mild, gawky western manner.” Tenacity was what Whitman wanted, the strength to endure the crisis in Washington. “The difficulties of his situation have been unprecedented in the history of statesmanship. That he has conserved the government so far is a miracle in itself.” (p218)
• The novelist William Makerpeace Thackeray said that “humor is the mistress of tears,” and Lincoln himself excused one of his laughing fits with the comment “I laugh because I must not cry; that is all; that is all.” (p226)
• Will Rogers said that “everything is funny as long as it’s happening to someone else,” but the more familiar the fool, the more disposed we are to laugh, relieved that this time we have escaped his folly and torment. (p227)
• Lincoln’s problem—fortunately for posterity—was that he kept doing what he thought was right, often with flagrant disregard for public sentiment and party politics. (p228)
• Lincoln’s campaign manager David Davis told him, “The opposition is so utterly beaten that the fight is not even interesting.” In fact, there was no prominent Republican other than Fremont—and the invalidated Chase—who wanted Lincoln’s job during that terrible time. It looked doubtful that any Republican could win the office, and it seemed only fitting and just that Lincoln should be the man to lose it. (p229)
• He occupied a lonely height where he saw dangers invisible to others. (p229)
• When the Radical Senator Zachariah Chandler from Michigan peevishly pointed out, “the important point is that one prohibiting slavery in the reconstructed states,” Lincoln coolly replied: “That is the point on which I doubt the authority of Congress to act.” The lawyer in Lincoln was speaking, and so was the political visionary. Abolition was not a matter for Congress to decide by legislation. Nothing short of an amendment to the Constitution, or the slow deliberation of the separate states, would put an end to slavery. (p230-231)
• It was the Democrats’ turn to show their hand. On August 30 in Chicago they nominated Lincoln’s old nemesis, General McClellan, on a “peace platform,” a condemnation of the war and a plea for peace that would prove an albatross for the candidate. The public soon called it “the Chicago Surrender.” The humor of McClellan’s predicament did not escape Lincoln or his Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, who said, “there is fatuity in nominating a general and a warrior in time of war on a peace platform.” Folly was no Republican monopoly. It was far easier to attack an incumbent President in wartime than to unseat him. (p235)
• Lincoln was too wise to be confident he would win the coming selection. But he had grounds for optimism. (p239)
• Lincoln, overwhelmed by office seekers, each of whom he felt “darted at him, and with thumb and finger carried off a portion of his vitality,” decided to change as few functionaries as possible. “To remove a man is very easy, but when I make a go to fill his place, there are twenty applicants, and of these I must make nineteen enemies.” (p242)
• …Doyle recalled how in April 1863 he had ended up in prison by a series of mishaps that might have been comical if they had befallen somebody else. (p248)
•…the President did not blame either the North or the South outright for the tragedy. (p255)
•“Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged.” (p255)
•“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.” (p255-256)
•While I have often said that all men ought to be free, yet I would allow those colored persons to be slaves who want to be; and next to them those white men who agree in favor of making other people slaves. [Applause.] I’m in favor of giving an opportunity to such white men as try it on for themselves. (p265)
{out of space}

[James Musial · Rating 4 out of 5]

the glazing was crazy but it was very well written

[Natalya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very long yet interesting book. Throughout the book you leanrn of Abraham Lincon and his adventures of his life. The book consists of Lincon’s friends and family, and tells of desicions made.

Honestly, I belive that this book was written in the First-person point of view, yet it could be disputed otherwise. Little details such as that William “Billy” Herndon loved birds and wildflowers really shows the kind of personality some of these historic people had. I adore every bit of funny text, yet hoped that there would have been more. I sometimes found the book to be a tad bit boring, but overall very nice.

Most of the book is of poems or letters from Whitman. Poems were stated and called things such as “Time & Land we swim in” , which was about how Whitman was satisfied with Drum-Taps. I learned a whole lot from the book, such as Abraham Lincon died on April 15, at 7:22 am, and that the Rebels had a small army.

My recomendation for readers to read this book is if you are between the ages of 15 and 20, mostly because the book is a very big bore for anyone younger. My final conclusion is that I didn’t really like the book. I learned a whole bunch of information from it, but if you’re looking for a fun fantasy book, this isnt it.

[Len Knighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding book about two American giants who never met but acknowledged each other from a distance.
Daniel Mark Epstein is now on the list as a member of my personal favorite authors. This is a beautifully written book, read concurrently with Doris Kearns Goodwin's NO ORDINARY TIME. What a treat to read these books from these authors at the same time!
My only complaint concerning LINCOLN AND WHITMAN is the analyzing of Whitman's poetry. Reading that became tedious and did not enhance my enjoyment or understanding of the poems. I suspect that I will not be the only reader who will see, in their memory bank, the final scene of the motion picture DEAD POETS SOCIETY starring Robin Williams.
I will finish Goodwin's book in two or three days. The review of that book on Goodreads will include some further remarks concerning this book. For now, I rate LINCOLN AND WHITMAN

Five stars waning

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I decided to read this book, I did not expect much. Nonetheless, I thought it might be worth a look since its topic (at least in part) focused on one of my favorite subjects--President Lincoln. The book well exceeded my expectations. It is a thoroughly engaging, even lyrical, account of the intimate connection between the bard of the Union and its indefatigable savior. Although the two men never met (formally that is), they shared a common view of the nature and destiny of America, to which the New York poet gave voice and for which the Midwestern commander-in-chief gave his life. As one review put it, the author, Daniel Epstein (himself an accomplished poet) "brings to life with passionate vividness...the parallel lives of the president and poet." Both men, neighbors in the Federal City, suffered much during the war years because of the suffering of a war-torn nation.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 clerk in various government departments, Whitman spent most of his free time comforting wounded 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. As Whitman prepared to publish his 2nd 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."

[Yvonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Epstein’s writing showcases how one can be influenced by a contemporary who he/she has never met. The story opens after Whitman has published Leaves of Grass
and a copy ends up in Lincoln’s law office in Springfield, IL. Literary works of the time period are reflective of political unrest, including the topic of slaveholders and slavery. Nevertheless, Lincoln and Whitman take note of each other’s behavior, especially when both end up in Washington, D.C. Whitman was a public figure who praised President Lincoln and his actions. Epstein’s story takes the reader on a journey of both men’s lives.

[Jim Manning · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a book I would have selected if there hadn’t been reasons (too long, not important here) but what a pleasure. I still don’t “get” Walt Whitman’s poetry, but I really love the person portrayed in this book. Among other things: what a proud gay man in 1850! And the portrayal of Abraham Lincoln is just unforgettable. Good book. Maybe 5 stars?

[Jared Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another terrific book from Daniel Mark Epstein. I found “Lincoln and Whitman” at Prairie Archives (the used book shop on the Old State Capitol Square in Springfield, Illinois) after reading in 2022 Matthew Pinsker’s “Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and The Soldier’s Home”. Pinsker opens Sanctuary with the account of Lincoln and Whitman acknowledging one another as Lincoln rode back into Washington one afternoon from the Soldier’s Home. Walt Whitman had come to know Lincoln’s schedule and would wait to watch Lincoln go by. This intrigued me enough that I visited and toured the Soldier’s Home in D.C. on a recent trip, was able to enjoy the setting there, three miles north of the White House. On horseback, Lincoln would make the journey in about a half an hour. So I was glad to find Epstein’s book about these “Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington”. Great history on Whitman’s work in various hospitals during the war and his emotional attachment to Abraham Lincoln (O Captain, my Captain!). I also enjoyed Epstein’s “Lincoln’s Men: The President and His Private Secretaries” and intend to follow up with his “The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage”. Daniel Mark Epstein is a “five-star” author and storyteller.

[Paulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating.

[JC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating parallel lives of very different men. One, a man trying to hold a nation together and the other, a writer and sometime nurse helping wounded soldiers before it overwhelmed him.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book on the intersection of the lives of two great Americans.

[James Dalessandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 19th Century produced an extraordinary number of influential people - Nikola Tesla, Harriet Tubman, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt, on and on. At the top of my list would have to be America's greatest statesman, Abraham Lincoln and its towering literary figure, Walt Whitman. I had never been aware of the influence of one on the other, though Whitman's poignant elegy, "O Captain! My Captain!" captures the horrors of the Civil War and the joy and reaffirmation of the Union victory, as well as Lincoln's inspirational genius and Whitman's heartache over his loss. Whitman volunteered as a hospital nurse at Fredericksburg and spent much of the war visiting hospitals to aid the wounded in any way he could, so he knew the horrors of the war first hand. His emotional and energetic prose appears to have had a profound effect on the writing and speeches of Abraham Lincoln, hence contributing to the words that inspired a nation through its most horrific crisis. I loved this book: if you admire either of these men or both of them, you may find this inspiring.

[Chab · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epstein, a D.C. native with deep family roots in the District, tells an irresistible story in depth.

This book can make you feel the Civil War in new emotional and intellectual ways. And it accomplishes this almost without trying -- that is, the narration never strains for effects as it tells this intense tale of two of the best men of their generation. Lincoln: always amazing. Whitman: always unique.

[Massimo Monteverdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il Poeta illustre e lo Statista emerito. Ma chi è davvero chi? Con il passar degli anni, Lincoln affinò vieppiù la sua capacità oratoria, raggiungendo vette di lirismo. Whitman tentò, senza grandi fortune, una carriera a Capitol Hill ma nei suoi canti risuonava fermo il richiamo al rigore politico. Due vite che si sfiorarono solo, all'ombra della guerra civile e fino all'assassinio del Presidente.

[Patti Williams]

If you are a fan of either man, or especially if you are a fan of both, you will find this book most intriguing. The influence of Whitman on Lincoln is a new idea to me, and it will cause you to stop and think about how writers influence our thoughts and our discussions. And the book gave me a deeper appreciation for Whitman's work. Great book.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln, as well as the time period, from reading this book. It is very detailed which, at times, maked for slow reading. However, it was well worth it.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful read. Anyone who loves Whitman should like this one. It is evident in Whitman's writing that he loved Lincoln. This book is a nice, readable look at their parallel lives.

[Carrie]

Walt Whitman: interesting
Abraham Lincoln: interesting
the Civil War: interesting

this book: strangely uninteresting

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting look at the intersecting lives of Lincoln and Whitman up to the end of the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination...

[Eugene Peery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. Brings the two men together in a special and very human way. A good read for lovers of literature and history.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting take on Lincoln and Whitman. I have several books on Lincoln and always learn something new. This is my first book about the life Walt Whitman -- and I enjoyed reading about the way their lives "intersected" -- I would recommend to anyone who is interested in this period of American History.