Coming this weekend – another Virtual Book Signing

One of the highlights of my bicentennial pilgrimage to Springfield was having the opportunity to meet Lincoln scholars and experts I’ve covered in my blog. The first Lincoln author/expert I ran into on Sunday, Feb. 8 was Daniel Weinberg of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago.

Weinberg and I had exchanged emails a time or two and I’d promoted some of his Virtual Book Signings in my blog, but we’d never met. He was just as pleasant in person as he had been by email and seemed in the online book signings. This man just has an aura about him that puts his interviewees at ease and elicits some powerful discussion.

You’ll get a change to see Weinberg at work this weekend and again in early March if you tune in to his next two Virtual Book Signings.

David Leroy on Feb. 21
Be sure to log on to your computer at 12 noon Central Time on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009, as Weinberg interviews David Leroy, Idaho Lincoln Bicentennial Commission chair and chairman of the Governors Council of the United States Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Leroy will be speaking about his book, Mr. Lincoln’s Book: Publishing the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

Remember, you can order your book for this and other Virtual Book Signings ahead of time through the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop BookBlast page.

Unfortunately, Mr. Leroy is one Lincoln buff I haven’t yet met. I remember reading about him last year in an online news story about the Lincoln Forum symposium at Gettysburg. I’m planning to attend this year, so I hope meet him there. In the meantime, we can all meet him in cyberspace, thanks to Weinberg’s book event.

Michael Burlingame on March 5
On Thursday evening, March 5 at 6 p.m. Central Time, join Weinberg and Michael Burlingame, as Burlingame talks about the most grandiose Lincoln biography since Sandburg finished his six-volume Lincoln bio 70 years ago.

I had the pleasure of meeting Burlingame, author of the two-volume Abraham Lincoln: A Life, at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library last week. I later watched as he moderated a panel for the Abraham Lincoln Association’s Lincoln Roundtable. I also got to hear him speak at a luncheon and at the Abraham Lincoln Association banquet. Burlingame’s good nature and wit make him a pleasant conversationalist and an engaging speaker.

You won’t want to miss this event, either. If you do, though, be sure to check back on the Virtual Book Signing website later, as the book signings are archived so they can be watched again and again.

If you missed White and Clinton
How did you spend your Valentine’s Day? Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln spent their day together on Virtual Book Signing. Okay, they didn’t, but the authors of books about each of them did.

Ronald C. White, Jr., author of A. Lincoln: A Biography, and Catherine Clinton, who wrote Mrs. Lincoln: A Life, teamed up on Feb. 14 to talk with Weinberg about one of the most misunderstood marriages in the history of our country. Just last week, I heard one writer speak of the strength of the Lincoln marriage and another speak of its misery. No one really knows what the marriage was like, of course, but the couple themselves, and they’re not here to tell us.

I’m sure you’ll gain some new insight into the individuals and into their marriage if you watch the archived interview when it’s available on Virtual Book Signing. When this article was written it wasn’t yet ready, but keep checking back. They should have it out there before long.

I had the opportunity to meet White in 2005 at the opening symposium of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum when my Lincoln buff buddy, Karen Needles, who has done research for White, introduced us. She spoke very highly of him and of his work.

Clinton was at that event too, but we didn't really get to meet until this year. Her inquisitive nature and tenacity inspire me. I'll be reviewing her book in the coming months, so be sure to watch for it here.

Be in the know
Afraid you’ll miss out on future Virtual Book Signings? You won't have to if you sign up for the free email mailing list. I joined a few months ago and it’s a great way to keep in the know on who’s on first, what’s on second and I don’t know’s on third in the world of Lincoln literature.

Scholars congregate and letter surfaces

There was plenty of Lincoln news today, and it’s too interesting not to share.

Lincoln Forum symposium opens
The Lincoln Forum symposium opened Sunday in Gettysburg. James R. Carroll of the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal made sure the event was chronicled. You’ll want to read his article to hear what these Lincoln buffs have to say:

• Frank J. Williams, Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice, quintessential Lincoln scholar, chairman of the Lincoln Forum, Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission member, author or editor of more than a dozen books, annual cataloguer of Lincolniana and more
• David Wiegers, an Illinois photographer
• David Leroy, chair of the Idaho Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission
• Daniel Weinberg, owner of Chicago’s famous Abraham Lincoln Book Shop

Like many of the scholars attending the symposium, Leroy, Wiegers and Williams are all in the midst of Lincoln book projects. Carroll tells you a little about a couple of them and why the Lincoln legacy continues to captivate people almost 200 years after his birth.

The Bixby letter (found?)
Even those who aren’t Lincoln buffs remember the famous Lincoln letter featured in the moving “Saving Private Ryan” – the letter the president wrote to a mother whose five sons all were believed to have perished in battle during the War Between the States.

The Dallas Historical Society recently found a document in its archives which it hopes is an honest-to-goodness copy of this famous letter. The letter will be appraised to help determine if it is the real deal. Read Jeff Carlton’s Associated Press story as featured in today’s Houston Chronicle to learn more.

By the way
Did you know that Steven Spielberg, who brought us Private Ryan, also has a Lincoln project in the works – supposedly in 2010? I’m not spreading any rumors about who’ll be filling the roles, but you can get a little info from the Internet Movie Data Base. In the meantime, if Mr. Spielberg wants to let Lincoln Buff 2 know the real scoop, I’ll be glad to share it with the rest of you.

© Copyright 2008 Ann Tracy Mueller. All rights reserved.