Stephen B. Oates is a master biographer. I had read his MLK biography several years ago and came away feeling well versed in this great figure. The same can be said for Oates' treatment of Lincoln. Like King, Lincoln has been mythologized beyond the point of recognition but Oates succinctly draws a portrait of Lincoln as the son of a poor family who in spite of his meager beginnings used his tenacity, intellect, and values to rise to the top of the Whig and Republican parties and ultimately to the presidency during a time of the country's greatest vulnerability. This is not a portrait of a marble statue but that of driven man who fought off depression, snobbish in-laws and easterners with his father's charm and high-pitched Kentucky drawl. Any future biographies of Lincoln will be compared favorably or unfavorably to this one.
facinating
