Drama and the High Office
By Paul Bacon

"My best friend," Abraham Lincoln once said, "is a man who'll git me a book I ain't read." Unlike most boys raised on the American frontier, Lincoln disliked hunting and spent his free time reading the few books he could get his hands on. His favorites included the works of Shakespeare, which he would later recite to White House guests with such passion that one visitor suggested the president may have missed his calling.

Partly self-educated on the words of the melodramatic playwright, Lincoln was the first commander-in-chief to embrace the conflict between the states that led to the Civil War, which he called "the great event." The six-foot-four, highly expressive politician relied on his theatrical strengths throughout his career, looming over audiences to deliver moralistic speeches expertly mingled with anecdotes and witticisms.

By abolishing slavery and preserving the Union, Lincoln became one of the most unassailable leaders in American history, but he was also the first president murdered in office. Befitting a hero with a penchant for drama, Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by a deranged actor, John Wilkes Booth, while watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington.


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