Lincoln (novel)

Lincoln

The first edition
Author	Gore Vidal
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Narratives of Empire
Genre	Historical novel
Publisher	Random House
Publication date	1984
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	672 pp
ISBN	0-375-70876-6
OCLC	43479239
Preceded by	Burr
Followed by	1876

Lincoln: A Novel is a historical novel, part of the Narratives of Empire series by Gore Vidal.

Set during the American Civil War, the novel describes the presidency of Abraham Lincoln through the eyes of several historical figures, including presidential secretary John Hay, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, Secretary of State William H. Seward, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, his daughter Kate Chase, U.S. Representative Elihu B. Washburne, and conspirators John Wilkes Booth and David Herold.

The novel's emphasis is on the president's political and personal struggles, and not the battles of the Civil War. Though Lincoln is the focus, the book is never narrated from his point of view (with the exception of several paragraphs describing a dream Lincoln had shortly before his death). Vidal's portrait is drawn from contemporary diaries, memoirs, letters, newspaper accounts, and the biographical writings of Hay and John Nicolay, Lincoln's secretaries; and is buttressed by the work of both 19th- and 20th-century historians.

Adaptation

Lincoln, a made-for-TV film based on the novel, first aired in 1988. It stars Sam Waterston as Lincoln and Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Todd Lincoln.

Feud with historian Richard N. Current

"Dean of Lincoln scholars" Richard N. Current took great exception to his novel, starting a running feud with Vidal in the pages of The New York Review of Books.