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Abe Lincoln: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

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By WALT BELCHER wbelcher

@tampatrib.com

Published: February 11, 2009

Suddenly Abe Lincoln is hot because ...

It's his 200th birthday on Thursday?

There's a big screen bio-film in the works starring Liam Neeson?

The U.S. Postal Service has four new Lincoln stamps?

President Barack Obama, who invoked the "great emancipator" image during his campaign, took the oath of office on Lincoln's Bible; and everything Obama touches turns to marketing gold?

New books about Lincoln are being published this year adding to the more than 15,000 that have been written about him since his death in 1865?

There are new documentaries about Lincoln debuting on PBS and the History Channel?

Maybe "hot" is too strong a word. It's not as if he's being profiled on MTV or "Entertainment Tonight" is questioning his love life.

But the he does have a seven-minute video on YouTube. It's a slide show of Lincoln photographs taken between 1846 and 1965 set to music. Check it out at http://www.wikio.com/video/832204.

"Looking for Lincoln," a two-hour special at 9 tonight on PBS outlet

Channel 3, explores the man and the myths about him that have evolved over the years. Harvard historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. takes viewers through the many contradictions in the life of this complex figure.

Lincoln is credited with freeing slaves and preserving the Union after the bitter Civil War. He also used racial epithets, questioned the intelligence of blacks and considered shipping freed slaves out of the country.

Part of his legend is an inspiring rags-to-riches story. A social misfit rises out of poverty to become a smart politician and a noble leader. His Gettysburg Address is the most eloquent speech ever given by a U.S. president.

Gates explores questions about Lincoln's personality, his bouts with depression and his relationship with his mentally troubled wife. Was he an atheist? Was he gay?

Gates interviews people who are devoted to debunking the legendary status of the 16th president as well as scholars who see him as a great man shaped by the times in which he lived.

"Lincoln is so capacious a myth in the American imagination that each generation reinvents him in their own image," Gates explains in the documentary. "We remake Lincoln to remake ourselves, and there are so many Lincolns. If we made a partial list, there would be Lincoln the warrior, Lincoln the peacemaker, Lincoln the statesman, Lincoln the opportunist, Lincoln the melancholy, Lincoln the humorist, Lincoln the Republican, and Lincoln the communist - because even Fidel Castro likes Abraham Lincoln.

"And then there are Lincoln the war criminal and Lincoln the redeemer. A guy even wrote a book about Lincoln being gay, and there was another book about Lincoln the romantic lover, in love with Ann Rutledge rather than Mary Todd. There is a Lincoln for every season."

MO' LINCOLN: "Stealing Lincoln's Body" at 9 p.m. Monday on The History Channel tells of the strange journey of Lincoln's remains, including how a gang of Chicago counterfeiters schemed to steal the body for a $200,000 ransom in 1876.

CNN's "From Lincoln to Obama," anchored by Soledad O'Brien, runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday. According to network news release, the special is "a network-wide look at the bridge between the times of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama on the bicentennial celebration of Lincoln's birth." Also, included throughout the day will be live reports about Obama's visit to Lincoln's home in Springfield and Obama's speech at about 8:45 p.m.

C-SPAN is devoting most of Thursday to Lincoln birthday memorials with commentary from Lincoln scholars.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

"Best in Show," 9 p.m., WMOR, Channel 32

Still longing for a dog show fix after Westminster? Try this 2000 mockumentary about the eccentrics who populate the dog show world.

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