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Shop nowThe Lincolns
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Learn moreDaniel Mark Epstein has produced an incisive and balanced portrait of the Lincolns, from their mysterious and troubled courtship in 1840 until his assassination in Ford's Theatre in 1865. For the first time, in The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage we can feel the full force of the tragedy that was the slow crumbling of their marriage, knowing it intimately from the first act to the last.
Daniel Mark Epstein has written more than fifteen books of poetry, biography, and history, including Lincoln and Whitman, which received an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, named one of the top ten books of 2008 by the Wall Street Journal and Chicago Sun-Times.
Adam Grupper, award-winning narrator, has garnered honors from AudioFile magazine, Publishers Weekly, iTunes, the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences, and the Audio Publishers Association. He has been in eleven Broadway productions, including the acclaimed revival of Fiddler on the Roof. His film and television credits include The Rebound, Homeland, Master of None, Music and Lyrics, Two Weeks Notice, Elementary, and Allegiance.
Reviews
āWith a novelistās feel for detail and drama, Daniel Mark Epstein portrays the Lincoln marriage with sensitivity and insight, painting an intimate portrait of a complex and consequential marriage. This work is a splendid addition to the Lincoln literature.ā
āWill we ever tire of trying to understand this man? I doubt it, and in this impressive work, Daniel Mark Epstein approaches Lincoln through his complicated and revealing union with Mary Todd.ā
āThe Lincolnsā marriage has always been shrouded in mystery and sadness. But in this fascinating biography by the peerless Epstein, the ties that bound them together are rendered with tender clarity. Beautifully written, impeccably researched, The Lincolns is destined to join the pantheon of indispensable books on the Civil War.ā
ā[Epstein] is a poet by trade who moonlights in biography, having published lives of Nat King Cole and Aimee Semple McPherson. His account of the Lincolnsā marriage combines a poetās sensitivity and imagination with a good historianās rigor and fairness. He has in particular an eye for the shifting tides of status and the tensions they can create: He knows that the wooing of the well-born Mary by the rustic young lawyer Lincoln, no matter how impressive his prospects, entailed a decline in status for her and an advance for himāand a difficult burden for a young marriage to carry. Mr. Epsteinās gift for atmospheric detail cuts deep, tooā¦Readers will be grateful for his modesty and for much else. He has written what may be the best Lincoln book in a generation.ā
āWhen one puts aside the stereotypes associated with the Lincolns, a rich and complex married life emergesā¦There is a lot that is new. First, this is the only book about the marriage that recounts the Springfield years (sixteen years out of twenty-two) in as much detail as the White House yearsā¦[and] thereās a lot more that is new.ā
āDaniel Mark Epsteinās brilliantly conceived The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage is marked by meticulous scholarship and a balanced evaluation of the union that, until now, has confounded biographers and readers alike. The author, also a poet, has given us an insightful and lyrical narrative of the relationship between Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln that helped make him president.ā
āDaniel Epstein in 2004 gave us the best book yet written on Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman. Now he has given us the best book yet written on the marriage of Abraham and Mary Lincolnāa comprehensive, sensitive, elegantly wrought masterpiece that puts us up close and personal with one of the most interesting pairings in American history.ā
ā[In] this reliable but familiar account of the Lincolns' frequently tempestuous marriageā¦what Epstein brings is a novelistic, almost lyrical touch.ā
āIn this new Lincoln chronicle, Epstein concentrates exclusively on the relationship between this seemingly odd and mismatched power coupleā¦This relationship biography reads like a nineteenth-century version of a Greek tragedy.ā
āA dynamic picture of a marriage every bit as fractious and as buffeted as the nation the Lincolns served.ā
āIn coolly objective tones, Adam Grupper narrates Epsteinās detailed account of the coupleās early yearsā¦Grupperās nasal timbre is well suited to this workā¦[and] overall, his informative reading fits the text well.ā
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