Lincoln: A Photobiography

Today I feel sorry for George Washington. He is, after all, the father of the country, yet he has to share a birthday celebration with Abraham Lincoln on President’s Day. Of the two, Lincoln has received the best treatment in children’s books, so today we’ll celebrate his accomplishments. Of all the hundreds and thousands of books about Lincoln, Russell Freedman’s Lincoln: A Photobiography remains the standard bearer not only for Lincoln biographies, but all biographies for ages ten through fourteen.

Born in San Francisco, Russell grew up in an ideal household for a future writer. His parents met in a bookstore and his father worked for years as the West Coast sales representative for Macmillan. This meant that at Russell’s house, John Steinbeck and Margaret Mitchell actually came to dinner. Their presence did not impress the young boy as much as it might have. He would have been happier if his favorite children’s book authors, Howard Pease or Hendrik van Loon, had visited instead.

Russell created thirty-three books, many of them about science, before he began work on Lincoln. At the urging of his editor, Ann Troy, he decided to tackle his boyhood hero as the subject for his next book. When he came upon a sentence describing Lincoln as “the most secretive—reticent—shut-mouthed man that ever lived,” he realized this hero might be a bit more complicated than he had ever imagined.

Freedman describes his passionate portrayal of Lincoln this way: “My biography of Abraham Lincoln tells the story of an ambitious, self-educated man who goes from a log cabin to the White House, but at the same time it’s also a story about slavery, racism, class privilege, and economic and political forces.” Freedman deftly portrays Lincoln, his time, and his place. Since children need heroes and heroines, Lincoln emerges in this book as one they can emulate.

The first time I read this book, I was flying to Washington, D.C., to give a speech. When I came to the end, I was sobbing, and the attendant came to me and said, “Miss, is anything wrong?” “Oh yes,” I blurted out, “ Lincoln has been shot!” Russell made me care so much about this figure that I could cry over his death, even though it had happened around 150 years ago.

When Lincoln won the Newbery Medal in 1988, something an information book had not done for thirty-two years, the book brought Russell great acclaim and a chance to write other spectacular nonfiction books. But he remained modest and has kept a sense of humor about his accomplishments. Russell’s favorite letter about Lincoln came from a child who wrote, “Did you take the photographs yourself?”

Here’s a page from Lincoln: A Photobiography: