Surratt Society Meeting and "Conference" 2021

[STS Lincolnite]

(04-19-2021 10:41 AM)Rob Wick Wrote:  Roger,

Adam Gopnik wrote about that in the New Yorker. While his article is far too long to copy exactly here, this is what he says about the question, which he first approached after reading Swanson's Manhunt.

For those interested in reading the entire article, here is the link.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/...s-and-ages

Best
Rob

Rob, I definitely spent time on what Gopnik has written in my talk. But for those that didn’t hear it, I will share some thoughts related to the portion of the article you excerpted (see his previous post for the excerpt).

In the excerpt you provided, Gopnik states “Tanner writes:” then goes on with what are supposedly Tanner’s words. That selection is taken directly, word for word, from…Twenty Days – as I have mentioned before, a secondary source. Gopnik’s follow up assessment that the quote “sounds fairly solid” really doesn’t carry much weight when it is taken from a secondary source without a credible, primary source to back it up. I will also note that like a few of the other published works I mentioned in my talk, neither Gopnik’s New Yorker article or his book (Angels and Ages), that addresses in part this topic, have any source citations.

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Roger, re: Dr. Leale's 1909 account:

Dr. Leale’s 1909 account is kind of a mess. It definitely differs from and is more expansive than accounts he provided in 1865 and 1867. His role becomes somewhat larger in the 1909 account.

For anyone interested in reading about an 1865 Leale account, an article on the topic can be found here:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/262986...w=fulltext