Words matter. These are the best Fred Kaplan Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Words about Lincoln fill a small but ever-growing library.
Political history is not the only way to approach historical figures.
Myth and mythology often serve constructive and aspirational purposes. But they also do harm.
To give credit to Lincoln for moral progression seems beyond the facts and unnecessary for our appreciation of this arguably greatest of all American presidents.
In his life, Charles Dickens was like the rest of us, but maybe more so: another poor and wonderful soul attempting to deal with his and the world’s pain and confusion in the best way he knew how.
It should be quite clear that it is possible for unpleasant people who are small in various ways other than in their artistic genius to produce great art. Art and morality have no necessary connection.
I got to know Gore Vidal quite well, up front and personal: his magnificent strengths and his appalling, almost other-worldly weaknesses.
Serious biographies need to have a historical base in facts.
Obama is a very fine writer with an excellent command of language. His memoir ‘Dreams From My Father’ is a fine book, but it will not rank as one of the great autobiographies.
I’m not a Lincoln expert, rather a biographer who has had the pleasure of reading much of what has been written about him from his lifetime to this year of his bicentennial. Some advice: Don’t try that unless you have at least five years available.
Lincoln is a genius of language and a brilliant writer who deserves to be seen as part of the canon of great writers in American literature.
I started out as a writer of fiction, but nobody wanted to publish my work as a young man. So I decided to put my interest in the narrative writing of biographies.
A recommendation to scholars: Write only one book about Lincoln; give it your best shot, and then move on.
The challenge of a president himself struggling to find the conjunction between the right words and honest expression, a use of language that respects intellect, truth, and sincerity, has largely been abandoned.
Lincoln was the Twain of our politics.
Lincoln is distinguished from every other president, with the exception of Jefferson, in that we can be certain that he wrote every word to which his name is attached.
Is there really any relationship between artists’ personal conduct and their art? Certainly not.
Gore Vidal was a man of immense literary talent, some of which he used well, some of which he wasted.
We do ourselves a disservice when we self-servingly massage the record.
I want to contribute to the culture and keep great writers alive by telling the stories of their lives.
