Bray, Faculty Advisor, Robert

Dierbeck, Liz

Digital Commons @ Illinois Wesleyan University

Illinois Wesleyan UniversityDigital Commons @ IWUJohn Wesley Powell Student ResearchConference 2000, 11th Annual JWP ConferenceApr 15th, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PMLog by Log: Building Abraham Lincoln inAmerican Youth ConsciousnessLiz DierbeckIllinois Wesleyan UniversityRobert Bray, Faculty AdvisorIllinois Wesleyan UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprcThis Event is brought to you for free and open access by The Ames Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Center for Curricular and FacultyDevelopment, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the President. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Commons @ IWU bythe faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@iwu.edu.©Copyright is owned by the author of this document.Liz Dierbeck and Robert Bray, Faculty Advisor, "Log by Log: Building Abraham Lincoln in American YouthConsciousness" (April 15, 2000). John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference. Paper 3.http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprc/2000/oralpres/3THE JOHN WESLEY POWELL STUDENT RESEARCH CONFERENCE • APRIL 2000 Oral Presentation 1.2 LOG BY LOG: BUILDING ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN AMERICAN YOUTH CONSCIOUSNESS Liz Dierbeck and Robert Bray* Department of English, Illinois Wesleyan University "What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one's heroic ancestors." - James Baldwin More books have been written about Abraham Lincoln than about any other American, and the books keep coming. Lincoln has become our country's Charlemagne, our King Arthur. Biographers attempt to give their readers an overview of Lincoln's character and accomplishments, but if we compress fifty-six years into a manageable volume, nuances of his character and details of his life are necessarily lost. How accurately, then, can a historical figure be portrayed in biography? Books, plays, toys, poems, and reenactments remind each generation that we have not yet fully unraveled the complex nature of Lincoln and his life. And yet, even in his complexity, we allow Lincoln to speak for us. The issue of historical correctness sharpens into focus when we discuss biographies written for young readers. If an author paints a portrait of a venerated historical figure with a brush that glosses over or omits events from the subject's life, can the work truly be representative of that life? In an era when free speech and "the people's right to know" are often wielded for political ends, how much good is done when children see their role models as less-than-Iegendary? I contend that Lincoln is best remembered in his complexity: as a fallible, but great, human being. Lincoln's image plays such a vital role in our national folklore that to alter his saintly character at all, especially in the venue of juvenile biography, would be to significantly change the way Americans think about their heroes and themselves. Biography is often intended to be "inspirational literature," and this is especially true in books written for children. If we warmly embrace our imperfect leaders in the venue of historical biography, then we will be able to teach children that imperfection is not only a part of life, it is a part of history and a part of the writing of history. 

Log by Log: Building Abraham Lincoln in American Youth Consciousness

http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1507&context=jwprc

Log by Log: Building Abraham Lincoln in American Youth Consciousness

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Digital Commons @ Illinois Wesleyan University