There’s a joke in the publishing world. A writer asks his editor for ideas about a commercially promising topic for a book. “Lincoln’s doctor’s dog,” the editor unhesitatingly responds.What to read for Abe Lincoln’s 200th birthday? Fred Kaplan breaks down the bios (and cracks on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “hyperbolic” Team of Rivals).
“Thank God that Doris Kearns Goodwin didn’t write a profile of Montezuma’s cabinet. Otherwise they’d be eating human flesh at Barack Obama’s inauguration!”Political Machine chuckling about the Lincoln-oriented menu for Inauguration Day.
“In addition to the humiliation he felt over his speaking voice, Salmon Chase was tormented by his own name. He fervently wished to change its ‘awkward, fishy’ sound to something more elegant. ‘How wd. this name do (Spencer de Cheyce or Spencer Payne Cheyce),’ he inquired of [his friend Charles] Cleveland. ‘Perhaps you will laugh at this but I assure you I have suffered no little inconvenience.'”The touching words of ambitious young Salmon P.