Harold Holzer, the Webb Garrison of Lincoln authoring, has no less than three books coming out to mark the Bicentennial next year:"Lincoln President Elect" arrives in late October and shows how Lincoln "faced the most dangerous transition period in American history," Holzer says.Feel the excitement? Wonder how it turns out.
He is also coediting "In Lincoln's Hand," a companion volume to the Library of Congress's big Lincoln 200 exhibition that opens Feb. 12. It will include scanned reproductions of original Lincoln letters and speeches, each with a comment by a prominent politician or writer—including Toni Morrison (on the Gettysburg Address), John Updike, Mario Cuomo, Newt Gingrich, Gore Vidal and NEWSWEEK's Jonathan Alter.You couldn't just write captions yourself (Gore Vidal's nickname for Holzer is "the Caption Writer," btw). You've moved beyond that to seize a huge backscratching opportunity. You've commissioned all these cadets to act as your junior Bicentennial rangers.
And for the Library of America, Holzer is editing "The Lincoln Anthology," a collection of 85 writers on Lincoln's life and legacy.The logrolling never stops. The frivolous literary and political celebs get to write captions for your picturebook; here your scholar pals get their slice of an essay collection.
Looks like the Bicentennial is generating three Holzer books and about 300 IOUs.
(Topside: Holzer speaking a caption for a picture of Holzer.)
