Interestingly, while having a sense of humor, or at least the appearance of one provided by comedy writers, has become a necessary characteristic for an American President in our time, in the nineteenth century, too much humor was considered a liability. And that was the case for Lincoln…

Bob Mankoff on Abraham Lincoln’s sense of humor, and ”the sense of the ridiculous,” a political liability in the early 19th cent: http://nyr.kr/VeNhcT

Michelle Dean reconsiders Mary Todd Lincoln, and explains why Sally Field was perfect for the role in Spielberg’s film: http://nyr.kr/10oHfWa

Abraham Lincoln loomed large in the imagination of the director John Ford, as seen in the 1939 drama “Young Mr. Lincoln” (which I discuss in this clip), an ingeniously tight-focussed yet historically resonant view of the future President’s rise to prominence. 

Richard Brody on his DVD-of-the-Week, “Young Mr. Lincoln”. Click-through for more.

How William H. Seward and Abraham Lincoln worked together: Dorothy Wickenden looks at a new biography of an unlikely American statesman: http://nyr.kr/OGbSz9

…as a cultural diagnosis, this has to come with a major qualification: we are talking about a book and a movie called “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” Absurdity and silliness—both very present in this rendering—are the balms of democracy. Jefferson Davis is the vampire’s useful idiot; but Lincoln, here, is still a cartoon character. Mad mashups are not hagiography.

 Is there a good history lesson in “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter”? Maybe a few: http://nyr.kr/LBqXTh