I use to try to read one book a year about John Adams, who for many years was my favorite president. I flirted with George Washington over the past few years, once I got over my miseducation about him and began to understand the man behind the myth.

But now I have to admit that Abraham Lincoln has replaced them both.

The reason?  Reading Doris Kearn Goodwin’s Team of Rivals  and Ronald C. White, Jr.’s new A. Lincoln: A Biography are certainly major reasons for this new found interest.

This year was the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, Feb. 12, 1709 (April 15th is the anniversary of his death in 1865). Not surprisingly, these anniversaries have been the occasion for increased focus on our 16th president, including last night’s Bill Moyers Journal’s Legend & Legacy (worth viewing if it is rebroadcast). Not only have there been a number of new books on Lincoln, but various Lincoln scholars, enthusiasts, and actors have been speaking and producing retrospectives all over the country, and abroad too.

About two months ago, looking for an audio book to pass the time on one of my monthly trips to NYC, I came across White’s A. Lincoln: A Biography, and what a good purchase that was.

I do not know enough to weigh in on how this biography compares to some of the others (James M. McPherson says it’s “the best since David Donald’s 1995 Lincoln”).  My friend Elliot Trummold, a Lincoln scholar, among other roles, attests that it is “solid and well done.” And various reviews say it’s one of the best one volume works on Lincoln. They know more than I.

But I was enthralled by it. Initially I thought I was taken in by the audio version (read by Bill Weideman) as I felt I was listening to Lincoln. When I actually began to read the biography, I continued to feel I was ‘listening’ to Lincoln. As opposed to just writing about him, White puts the reader inside of Lincoln’s thinking. He does this through the extensive use of the written record, the notes that Lincoln left, the speeches he gave, and some recent papers, letters, and photographs that have been released.

What I enjoyed so much about A. Lincoln was White’s ability to take me along at each point in Lincoln’s development to present the man, not the myth.  Not only does White let Lincoln speak for himself as much as possible, he seems able to describe Lincoln’s personal, political, and ethical & religious development without proselytizing or seeking to make Lincoln a hero.

The biography opens with Lincoln’s birth and ends with his assassination, and in between we learn enough of this man to make our own judgements about him. Additionally, White sets the scene, politically, socially, and technologically in such a way that the reader understands how different it was to be the president in the 19th century from what it is now.

Although events pressed him even before he was sworn into office, Lincoln’s lifetime interest in reading and in learning from history, literature, and observation served him well once he was in the White House. He continued to spend an extraordinary amount of time once in office reading and then writing and rewriting his speeches, addresses, and letters to individuals, newspapers, and the public. And it is through his splendid writing that we get to know the man.

As I indicated, I’m not qualified to judge if A. Lincoln is the one book you should read about Lincoln. But if you want to know more about this man than you already do (whether your knowledge is minimal or you know much about him), White’ new biography is worthy of your time.

(Now I guess I will next have to read Donald’s Lincoln, unless some one convinces me some thing is better than that.)

PS - I have the 23 CD set of White’s A. Lincoln and would be glad to loan it. Just let me know if you are interested.