Southern Lit Alliance has announced its lineup for its 2021 South Bound Lecture Series, starting with a Lincoln novel.
A Zoom interview with John Cribb, New York Times bestselling author and author of “Old Abe,’’ a novel about the last five years of Abraham Lincoln’s life and some of the most tumultuous years in America’s history, will be held Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 6 p.m.
The book begins in the spring of 1860, and the story follows Lincoln through his election and the calamity of the Civil War. During the war, he walks bloody battlefields in the North and the South, peering down the Potomac River with a spyglass amid terrifying reports of approaching Confederate gunboats.
At the White House, he weeps over the body of Willie, his second son to die in childhood. As he tries desperately to hold the Union together, he struggles to find meaning in the Civil War and bring freedom to Southern slaves.
Central to this biographical novel is a love story – the story of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln’s sometimes stormy yet devoted marriage. Mary’s strong will and ambition for her husband have helped drive him to the White House. But the presidency takes an awful toll on her. Lincoln watches helplessly as she becomes emotionally unstable, and he grasps for ways to support her.
As Lincoln’s journey unfolds, Old Abe chronicles the final five, tumultuous years of his life until his eventual assassination at the height of his power. Full of epic scenes from American history, it probes the character of America.
Cribb is a bestselling author who has written about subjects ranging from history to education. His work includes co-authoring “The American Patriot’s Almanac’’ and “The Educated Child,’’ both New York Times bestsellers; co-editing “The Human Odyssey,’’ a 3-volume world history text, and developing online history courses.
His writing has been published in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, National Review Online, The Hill, Real Clear Politics and several other publications. “Old Abe’’ is his first novel.