Kindred spirits despite their profound differences in
position, Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman shared a vision of the
democratic character. They had read or listened to each other’s
words at crucial turning points in their lives, and both were
utterly transformed by the tragedy of the Civil 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 a rich trove of personal and newspaper accounts and
diary records, Epstein shows how the influence and reverence flowed
between these two men–and brings to life the many friends and
contacts they shared. Epstein has written a masterful portrait of
two great American figures and the era they shaped through words
and deeds.
關於作者:
Daniel Mark Epstein is the author of highly acclaimed
biographies of Aimee Semple McPherson, Nat King Cole, and Edna St.
Vincent Millay, as well as seven volumes of poetry. His verse has
appeared in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review,
among other national publications. Epstein lives in
Baltimore.
From the Hardcover edition.