Brenda Wineapple

"When Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson became President, a fraught time in America became perilous. Congress was divided over how Reconstruction should be accomplished and the question of black suffrage. The South roiled with violence, lawlessness, and efforts to preserve the pre-Civil War society. Andrew Johnson--chosen as Vice President for electability, because he was a Southern Democrat--had no interest in following Lincoln's agenda....

"Here is Whitman the sage, champion of expansiveness and human freedom. Here too, is the poet's more personal side--his vivid memories of Thoreau, Emerson, and Lincoln, his literary judgments of writers such as Shakespeare, Goethe, and Tolstoy, and his expressions of hope in the democratic promise of the nation he loved. The result is a keepsake edition to touch the soul, capturing the distilled wisdom of America's greatest poet"--from Jacket.