Writing the Gettysburg Address

Writing the Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago . . . .

Are any six words better known, of greater import, or from a more crucial moment in our nationâ€™s history? And yet after 150 years the dramatic and surprising story of how Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address has never been fully told. Until now.

Martin Johnson's remarkable work of historical and literary detection illuminates a speech, a man, and a moment in history that we thought we knew. Johnson guides readers on Lincolnâ€™s emotional and intellectual journey to the speakerâ€™s platform, revealing that Lincoln himself experienced writing the Gettysburg Address as an eventful process that was filled with the possibility of failure, but which he knew resulted finally in success beyond expectation.

We listen as Lincoln talks with the cemetery designer about the ideals and aspirations behind the unprecedented cemetery project, look over Lincoln's shoulder as he rethinks and rewrites his speech on the very morning of the ceremony, and share his anxiety that he might not live up to the occasion. And then, at last, we stand with Lincoln at Gettysburg, when he created the words and image of an enduring and authentic legend.

Writing the Gettysburg Address resolves the puzzles and problems that have shrouded the composition of Lincoln's most admired speech in mystery for fifteen decades. Johnson shows when Lincoln first started his speech, reveals the state of the document Lincoln brought to Gettysburg, traces the origin of the false story that Lincoln wrote his speech on the train, identifies the manuscript Lincoln held while speaking, and presents a new method for deciding what Lincolnâ€™s audience actually heard him say.

Ultimately, Johnson shows that the Gettysburg Address was a speech that grew and changed with each step of Lincoln's eventful journey to the podium. His two-minute speech made the battlefield and the cemetery into landmarks of the American imagination, but it was Lincolnâ€™s own journey to Gettysburg that made the Gettysburg Address.
Country USA
Brand University Press of Kansas
Manufacturer University Press of Kansas
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber illustrations
ReleaseDate 2015-03-27
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780700621125

Country	USA
Brand	University Press of Kansas
Manufacturer	University Press of Kansas
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	illustrations
ReleaseDate	2015-03-27
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780700621125

Writing the Gettysburg Address

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