"The Lincoln Canon" by Fred Kaplan

Another indication of the slow excruciating death of the industry I poured twenty years of my life into was the Washington Post's recent announcement that next week will be the last edition of its Book World as a stand alone publication. The Sunday Washington Post is my only newspaper subscription. I try to read it in hard copy every week. Being a bibliophile, I especially enjoy learning about new books from reading Book World.

Now, in truth my first sentence was melodramatic; for both the news industry and Book World will be continuing in digital form. But until digital paper becomes cheap and ubiquitous, our eyes will continue to prefer the written page to the digital. I don't mean that people will have that preference; I mean it literally. Our eyes find it easier to read ink on paper than letters on screens. So while as a blogger of seven years I clearly embrace the digital age, I retain a sentimental attachment to the printed page.

But I digress.

What moved me to eulogize the Post's Book World was, once again, another incident of my learning about great books from the publication. Fred Kaplan offered a great piece highlighting the best books available in the Lincoln biographical corpus. Longtime readers of this blog know that I have an affinity for historical biographies, so I thought they might be interested in this piece.

photograph from wikipedia