This self-made man from a log cabin-the great orator, the Emancipator, the savior of the Union, the martyr-was arguably our greatest president; but it takes a master storyteller like Thomas Keneally, author of the award-winning novel that inspired the film Schindler's List, to bring alive the history behind the myth. Acclaimed for his recent Civil War biography, American Scoundrel, Keneally delves with relish-and a keen, fresh eye-into Lincoln's complicated persona. Abraham Lincolndepicts all the amazing man's triumphs, insecurities, and crushing defeats with uncanny insight: his early poverty and the ambition that propelled him out of it; the shaping of the man and his political philosophy by youthful exposure to Christianity, slavery, and business; his tempestuous marriage and his fatherly love. We see him, elected to the presidency by a twist of fate, unswerving in the grim day-to-day conduct of the war as his vision and acumen led the country forward. Abraham Lincolnis an incisive study of a turning point in our history and a revealing portrait of its pivotal figure, his greatness etched even more clearly in this very touching human story. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Keneally offers up a new volume in the popular Penguin Lives series of short biographies. Some writers appear to benefit from the forced brevity. Keneally, however, seems inhibited and constrained by the limitation in his life of Abraham Lincoln. Unlike his previous, lengthier nonfiction outings (notably The Great Shame and the recent American Scoundrel), his life of Lincoln reads not as a great illuminating narrative placing past events in a fresh perspective, but rather like a Cliffs Notes version of better books by such scholars as David Donald. The facts of Lincoln's life as related are both true and readable, but the author offers no new insights, no imaginative or interpretive leaps, no poetry. Keneally is at his best, perhaps, in presenting Lincoln in his final stage, a calculating and at times ruthless war leader. This is the Lincoln whom Keneally's "American scoundrel," Dan Sickles, knew best and with whom Keneally also seems to be pretty well acquainted. Still, all the other Lincolns here-the wilderness child, the prairie lawyer, the husband, the father, the fledgling politician-come across as little more than hollow robots walking doggedly from one well-known benchmark to the next, lacking that one element so essential to real life: a soul. (On sale Dec. 30) Forecast: Lincoln sells, and so does Keneally. So, despite its flaws, will this brief bio. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Abraham Lincoln was several times accused of "spirit-rapping," whereby he called on the dead to speak. Novelist and biographer Keneally has worked just such magic in his eloquent and insightful brief biography of America's most complicated subject. Like Lincoln, Keneally tells a good story, finding the right anecdote to make his case and never forgetting the moral of the tale. Keneally's Lincoln is a self-actuated farm boy made good by self-discipline, savvy instincts, wit, the wisdom acquired from courtrooms, friendships, and political huckstering-and luck. He is an individual of principle committed to promoting the self-made man through government support for economic improvements and opening a West free of slavery. Keneally recounts Lincoln's early missteps in romance, business, and politics and his self-doubts and depression as his star dimmed several times, and he concedes Lincoln's erratic course toward emancipation and a successful strategy for Union victory during the Civil War. But in the end, Keneally's Lincoln emerges almost as a "father Abraham" anointed for his great role in leading a chosen people toward redemption and their rendezvous with destiny. This is an epic compressed into a tightly written biography that all Americans might read with profit. Keneally's occasional tendency to let folklore stand as fact notwithstanding, there is no better brief introduction to Lincoln and his American dream. For all libraries.-Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1935, Thomas Keneally was educated at various schools on the New South Wales north coast. Although he initially studied for the Catholic priesthood, he abandoned that idea in 1960, turning to teaching and clerical work before writing and publishing his first novel, The Place at Whitton, in 1964. Since that time Keneally has been a full-time writer, aside from the occasional stint as a lecturer or writer-in-residence.

Considered one of the most successful modern Australian writers of all time, Keneally wrote more than a dozen novels before publishing the story that became his most controversial, but best-known and most influential, to date. Published in 1982, Schindler's Ark, the story of a man, Oskar Schindler, who risked his life to protect beleaguered Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland was considered by some to be a work of journalistic reporting. Eleven years later, Stephen Spielberg adapted Keneally's book into the hugely successful, yet visibly disturbing, film, Schindler's List.

Other books written by Keneally include Gossip from the Forest, A Dutiful Daughter, A River Town, and By the Line. Keneally has also written a children's book and a screenplay.

In 1983, Thomas Keneally was awarded the order of Australia for his services to Australian Literature. He has won international acclaim for his novels, including Schindler's List, the basis for the Steven Spielberg film and winner of the Booker Prize, and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.