Our Monday Movie matinee on July 17 is Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in his Oscar winning performance. Want to know more about Lincoln, or curious about fiction that has been written about him? Here are a few titles to whet your appetite.
Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter / Seth Grahame-Smith (2010)
While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. Gifted with legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, young Abe Lincoln sets out to avenge the death of his mother at the hands of a vampire.
The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln / Stephen L. Carter (2012)
In an alternate history novel, Lincoln escapes assassination by John Wilkes Booth only to face impeachment, and Abigail Canner, a young black woman involved in his defense, helps investigate the murder of the president's counsel.
Killing Lincoln : the shocking assassination that changed America forever / Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard (2011)
In the spring of 1865, America's Civil War finally came to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices are not appeased. John Wilkes Booth, charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist, murdered Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre
Emancipating Lincoln : the proclamation in text, context, and memory / Harold Holzer (2012)
Harold Holzer, an award-winning Lincoln scholar, invites us to examine the impact of Lincoln's momentous announcement at the moment of its creation, and then as its meaning has changed over time.
The Lincoln conspiracy : a novel / Timothy L. O'Brien (2012)
From award-winning journalist Timothy L. O'Brien comes a gripping historical thriller that poses a provocative question: What if the plot to assassinate President Lincoln was wider and more sinister than we ever imagined?
Bloody times : the funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the manhunt for Jefferson Davis / James L. Swanson (2011)
On the morning of April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis received a telegram from General Robert E. Lee. That night Davis fled Richmond, setting off an intense manhunt for the Confederate president. Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the conspiracy that led to the crime
Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker / Jennifer Chiaverini (2013)
Presents a fictionalized account of the friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and her dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave.
Team of rivals : the political genius of Abraham Lincoln / Doris Kearns Goodwin ( 2005)
Historian Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius, as the one-term congressman rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals to become president. When Lincoln emerged as the victor at the Republican National Convention, his rivals were dismayed.
The hour of peril: the secret plot to murder Lincoln before the Civil War / Daniel Stashower (2013)
Two-time Edgar award-winning author Daniel Stashower uncovers the riveting true story of the "Baltimore Plot," an audacious conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln on the eve of the Civil War.