New book: "How a Nation Grieves: Press Accounts..."

[Glenn Cheney]

Hello, everyone. For those of you who have read all the other 16,000 books about Lincoln, I'd like to suggest a new book, one that's a little different. The title is "How a Nation Grieves: Press Accounts of the Death of Lincoln, the Hunt for Booth, and America in Mourning." I'm the author. the foreword is by U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney.

This book isn't about Lincoln as much as the emotional state of the nation at its most traumatic juncture. As you read the reports and editorials, you witness the zeitgeist much as everyone else did -- through newspapers that had to use words to do what photography and television would later do with graphic images.

And the writing is beautiful, often with an elegance approaching the poetic. In fact, I started each chapter (each chapter containing the reports of a given day) with some lines taken from a report but broken into lines that render them poetry.

You can read an excerpt at cheneybooks.com . I'd love to hear comments about the presentation of the book and, more important, the quality of journalism in those days.

Glenn Alan Cheney
Hanover, Conn.

[RJNorton]

Glenn, welcome to our Lincoln discussion group! Your book sounds fascinating. Also, we look forward to your opinions on the many Lincoln-related topics we have been discussing. Thank you for joining the forum!

[BettyO]

Welcome aboard, Mr. Cheney!

I find the journalistic coverage of the period extremely interesting and have ordered your book. This type of research is very relevant to achieving a broader understanding of the assassination as well as the overall social aspects of the time. I feel that the use of primary sources are also very insightful if we are to gain a complete perspective of any subject.

I'm currently working on a similar book covering the reporting of the Lincoln Conspiracy Trial and the execution based on my Grad thesis. Tentative title: Character Assassination - a Journalistic Viewpoint of the Lincoln Conspiracy Trial.

Again, welcome to our Forum, Mr. Cheney.

[Glenn Cheney]

Betty, your book sounds fascinating, especially the title. I was tempted to continue my reporting through the trial, but the book was just getting too long. I stopped at Lincoln's burial and added an epilog of one news item reporting the trial of Mary Surratt.

(09-04-2012 07:52 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Welcome aboard, Mr. Cheney!

I find the journalistic coverage of the period extremely interesting and have ordered your book. This type of research is very relevant to achieving a broader understanding of the assassination as well as the overall social aspects of the time. I feel that the use of primary sources are also very insightful if we are to gain a complete perspective of any subject.

I'm currently working on a similar book covering the reporting of the Lincoln Conspiracy Trial and the execution based on my Grad thesis. Tentative title: Character Assassination - a Journalistic Viewpoint of the Lincoln Conspiracy Trial.

Again, welcome to our Forum, Mr. Cheney.

[HerbS]

Glenn,What a great idea to write a book about!--Betty,You never cease to amaze me! Welcome Mr.Chenny!

[Glenn Cheney]

(09-04-2012 03:37 PM)HerbS Wrote:  Glenn,What a great idea to write a book about!--Betty,You never cease to amaze me! Welcome Mr.Chenny!

Herb: When I started pulling together these articles, I never thought I'd be so drawn into it. I felt like I was in a different world. It became very real. And the writing was so beautiful then. I ended up starting each chapter (one chapter for each day from April 10 to May 6) with a "found poem," a few sentences from a report which I broke into poetic lines.

[Laurie Verge]

Welcome, Mr. Cheney. I have already asked the manager of our gift shop at Surratt House Museum to check into selling this book. We definitely want a copy in our James O. Hall Research Center.

And, I would like to plant a thought in your mind. Each March, the museum and its volunteer affiliate, the Surratt Society, sponsor a weekend conference here in Maryland. Our agenda is set for March 2013 - but, please consider this an informal invitation to speak in 2014...

[RJNorton]

Glenn wrote a blog entitled "How a Nation Reports its Grief" here.

[L Verge]

As of this moment, Glenn is set to do book signings during the Surratt conference's Authors' Hour. However, he may be called out of the country on business sometime in March, so I'm holding my breath... His book will definitely be on sale during the conference.

[Thomas Thorne]

This sounds like a fascinating book. I intend to buy it.

I remember reading a book by Kenneth Stampp "And the War Came" which examined the secession crisis thru Northern newspaper editorials. I am guessing that the Civil War era represented the ultimate flowering in both numbers and influence of the small sized newspaper with individual proprietors. Republicans would not be caught dead reading Democratic rags and Democrats felt the same way about Republican journals. The "New York Herald" with its mass circulation-in 1861 an amazing 84,000-was quite atypical.

Given the stupendous decline in the number of newspapers and the advent of polling, I don't believe we will ever see a similar book about our time unless someone preserves blogs for posterity.

PS Can anyone identify the source of Kenneth Stampp's title "And the War Came"?
Tom

[RJNorton]

(02-13-2013 11:30 PM)Thomas Thorne Wrote:  PS Can anyone identify the source of Kenneth Stampp's title "And the War Came"?
Tom

Was the person a former Illinois state legislator who once jumped from a window of the Second Presbyterian Church, the temporary location of the Illinois House of Representatives, in December 1840?

[Thomas Thorne]

Roger,I presume you are referring to Lincoln. "And the War Came" is from the second inaugural address.

I am not familiar with the story about Lincoln jumping out of a church window. Was there a fire? Was he trying to avoid Mary Todd?
Tom

[RJNorton]

Tom, it was neither. The motive of the unusual action, for which Lincoln suffered considerable humiliation, was to break a quorum when Democrats called for a vote to cripple the Whig-favored state bank. Two other legislators, Joseph Gillepsie and Asahel Gridley, jumped with Lincoln.

[LincolnMan]

Glenn: Welcome aboard. We probably haven't read 16,000 books about Lincoln-probably more like 15,999.