New Book Explores Abraham Lincoln's Life

Broadcast: Feb 08, 2003

 

Cities and universities have been named for Abraham Lincoln, his face appears on the U.S. $5 bill, and tourists flock to the massive Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Adam Braver grew up reading historical accounts of the revered¹ President's life. When he became a writer himself, he decided² Lincoln would also be an ideal subject for ¹⁾fiction. "He had the heroism," he said. "He had the stature³. But he also has these conflicts raging both personally and professionally. That's also coupled with the fact I was very fascinated by the conflicts between public life and personal life in celebrities⁴ in general, how people negotiate in the public's eye versus⁵ what they're feeling inside."

The stories in Mister Lincoln's Wars focus on the final days of his Presidency⁶, ²⁾climaxing with his ³⁾assassination⁷ in 1865. But they range over his life, exploring his depression, his strained relations with his wife, and most of all, his grief over losing his young son, Willie. "What I was interested in was what he must have felt like to lead this ⁴⁾brutal war that was practically right outside his doorstep, while inside, his son had died within the last few years," said Adam Braver. "History tells us he and Willie were very close, and I can't imagine drawing up battle plans in which other people will lose their children as well."

Here's how Adam Braver introduces Lincoln in the book's first story, No More Time for Tears. "His face looks sunken, ⁵⁾cheekbones drawn⁸ out in a sharp cut, with thin jowls of flesh formed under his eyes that locked off to the distance. And his boy, Willie, had died three years ago at the age of twelve, and not too far away, all up and down the seaboard, soldiers had been lying in ⁶⁾infirmaries screaming and ⁷⁾moaning and crying like boys with men's pains, and some cursed Lincoln and others called him a good man, none of them ever imagining their president falling to his knees and fighting for breath while his eyes stayed dry and the inside of his head seemed as if it would drown in a thousand different lakes. And even after three years he only occasionally came up for air, the rest of the time being spent holding on to his last breath."

The stories are also told from the perspective of soldiers, their parents, Lincoln associates and family members. Historians often portray⁹ Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, as selfish and neurotic¹⁰, but Adam Braver imagines how she must have felt to lose a son, and be married to a public figure absorbed in his own world of problems. "What I wanted to show was that she also was a compassionate¹¹ person and to some degree a victim of her circumstances as well," he said. "In one chapter she goes out to visit soldiers in the hospitals just to comfort them, without even identifying who she is, which in fact was true according to what I read. So I really wanted to show she was a good person. And there's a part where she wishes that he were a little more compassionate to her."

Other stories describe people who resent or even despise Lincoln for forcing them into a war they don't believe in. There's even a story about John Wilkes Booth, the southern ⁸⁾sympathizer who assassinated¹² Lincoln. Adam Braver says he began writing his book on the West Coast, then midway through the project moved to the southern state of North Carolina. Living in the region that lost the Civil War gave him new perspectives on Lincoln. "One is that he was not loved by everybody, and seen as this tremendous heroic figure who saved democracy and the United States as we know it," continued Adam Braver. "There are still plenty of people in the South who hold him accountable for everything wrong that's gone on in the country, much in the same way as people did then. It was also interesting to me living here how he's still present in so many peoples' minds. You're surrounded by the battlefields. You're surrounded by social issues that are still traced back to the Civil War. It's still recent history here."

While he relied on his imagination to explore the inner lives of his characters, Adam Braver also borrowed from historical documents. Information suggesting Lincoln may have had a troubled relationship with his father inspired some of the tales.

Another story describes the autopsy¹³ performed after his assassination. Adam Braver says he used Lincoln's actual autopsy report, which he found on the Internet, to write the story. Did he ever feel he went too far in humanizing an American icon¹⁴? "I can remember a few moments writing it where I thought, 'Boy I'm really crossing some lines here,' " he said. "But once I crossed those lines, and he went from being the statues and the images on the currency to a real person, it almost felt a little liberating¹⁵ to me to see him have foibles, see him do things we couldn't imagine him doing, but that he probably did."

Having created his own flawed and vulnerable Abraham Lincoln, Adam Braver says it was hard to return to his old image of Lincoln as the venerated¹⁶ statesman. And while he'd never thought of himself as a historical novelist, he's now so interested in the gap between myth and reality that he's working on a novel about another celebrity¹⁷, Sarah Bernhardt, whose acting¹⁸ career spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

I'm Nancy Beardsley.

1)    fiction[5fikFEn]n. 虚构, 编造, 小说

2)    climax[5klaimAks]n. 高潮, 顶点

3)    assassination[E7sAsi5neiFEn]n. 暗杀

4)    brutal[5bru:tl]adj. 残忍的, 兽性的

5)    cheekbone  n. 颊骨, 颧骨

6)    infirmary[in5fE:mEri]n. 医院, 医务室<美>养老院, 救济院

7)    moan[mEun]vi. 发出呻吟声, 抱怨, 哀悼

8)    sympathizer n. 同情者, 支持者, 同感者, 同意者

1 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 stature   

n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材

参考例句：

• He is five feet five inches in stature.他身高5英尺5英寸。
• The dress models are tall of stature.时装模特儿的身材都较高。

4 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

5 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

6 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

7 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

8 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

9 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

10 neurotic   

adj.神经病的，神经过敏的；n.神经过敏者，神经病患者

参考例句：

• Nothing is more distracting than a neurotic boss. 没有什么比神经过敏的老板更恼人的了。
• There are also unpleasant brain effects such as anxiety and neurotic behaviour.也会对大脑产生不良影响，如焦虑和神经质的行为。

11 compassionate   

adj.有同情心的，表示同情的

参考例句：

• She is a compassionate person.她是一个有同情心的人。
• The compassionate judge gave the young offender a light sentence.慈悲的法官从轻判处了那个年轻罪犯。

12 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

13 autopsy   

n.尸体解剖；尸检

参考例句：

• They're carrying out an autopsy on the victim.他们正在给受害者验尸。
• A hemorrhagic gut was the predominant lesion at autopsy.尸检的主要发现是肠出血。

14 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

15 liberating   

解放，释放( liberate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Revolution means liberating the productive forces. 革命就是为了解放生产力。
• They had already taken on their shoulders the burden of reforming society and liberating mankind. 甚至在这些集会聚谈中，他们就已经夸大地把改革社会、解放人群的责任放在自己的肩头了。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

16 venerated   

敬重（某人或某事物），崇敬( venerate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• My father venerated General Eisenhower. 我父亲十分敬仰艾森豪威尔将军。
• He used the sacraments and venerated the saints. 他行使圣事，崇拜圣人。 来自英汉非文学 - 文明史

17 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

18 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。