Common Sense	Common Sense Archive

January 11, 2005, is the publication date for the new book The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln. The author is the late C. A. Tripp, and it is based on his original research. Tripp died in the fall of 2003, just days after completing the manuscript. Local author Lewis Gannett (The Living One) worked with Tripp on this book for the past few years, and after Tripp's death had the primary responsibility of editing and organizing the manuscript into a publishable presentation. Lewis is a friend of mine and he would, periodically, give me updates on the project's progress.

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It was not an unimpeded effort. Tripp appointed an old friend of his as his estate's executor. It seems that this individual was not as keen about the Lincoln book as was Tripp and Gannett. Tripp had earlier worked with another writer but they fell out. This writer had a beef with Tripp and the publisher and has not been helpful. So it goes.

Tripp had worked with Alfred Kinsey back in mid-century and went on to have his own distinguished career. His book, The Homosexual Matrix, was published in 1975. He first got interested in the sexual history of Lincoln after reading Carl Sandburg's work on Lincoln. In 1990, Tripp attended a panel presented by the American Historical Association on "Gay American Presidents?" which was a discussion about Washington, Buchanan, Lincoln and Garfield (two of whom were assassinated while President, Garfield being the only one to be killed by a lawyer). Tripp spent over a decade compiling a massive database of works about Lincoln, references to his life and relationships, etc.

The buzz about Tripp's book began several months ago. Doug Ireland wrote about it in the LA Weekly. Ireland thinks this will be a book that changes American history. There are numerous websites featuring commentary and opinions regarding the question "Was Lincoln Gay?" And on Thursday, 16 December, the New York Times ran a considered piece on the front page of its Art Section (above the fold!) which presented the book as a serious piece of scholarship that opened up a debate that had mostly been a low-level murmur among the Lincoln Priesthood (Gore Vidal's phrase, having run the gauntlet after his novel, Lincoln, was published). I have always thought Tripp's book would cause a sensation but, as I noted to Gannett, the degree of the success of the book (in sales and in reputation) will partly be a result of the quality of the controversy.

Several recent events play to the advantage of the book's launch-- the current movie about Kinsey (a tie-in to Tripp and his credentialing), the anger over the results of recent elections, the hypocrisy of the Republicans, etc. A little fresh air about the sixteenth President may be an elixir. I expect the usual right-wing nutcakes to go ballistic over Tripp's book-- you'd think they would have run out of slobber frothing over the Kinsey movie; alas, their saliva glands seem to be hyper-active. Revealing that Abe had a few boyfriends and was probably more attracted to men than to women just may put some of them over the edge (where the edge actually is for people that far out would be an interesting subject for debate). There will be, of course, the frothers going on about questionable scholarship, the lack of standing of the authors, the sinister Gay Agenda, avoiding, as is their wont, the historical evidence. So many don't live in the real world anyway.

Fixing history

I'm glad this book of Tripp's is being published. I wish he had lived long enough to see what impact it will have. A leading Lincoln scholar agreed to write the introduction, endorsing Tripp's data and interpretation. It has always surprised me that so many people have so little understanding of our historical figures, believing instead the Received Wisdom version. Men and women without religion are turned into the devout; the sexually ambient are straightened out. In fact, on one website I just visited, there was discussion about Tripp's book and the writer acknowledged that Lincoln's sexuality had come up in an earlier book, Charley Shively's Drum Beats: Walt Whitman's Civil War Boy Lovers, in which Shively talks about Lincoln's male attachments and Whitman's fascination with Lincoln, whom he felt to be a kindred spirit. The writer has an aside, noting that Whitman was a poet "many presume to be gay." Shively once told me that up until the end of the 1950s, Whitman was solidly heterosexual to his Priesthood. After all, the great American poet couldn't be some guy who invented the modern blow-job! But this time, at least with Walt, there has been significant reclamation. None of this would have come about without the work of Kinsey and his associates and the development of a gay liberation movement and the new ways of thinking it developed, sweeping away the lies, the distortions, the webs of mendacity. As the late Boyd McDonald noted (himself very much in the tradition of Kinsey), the truth is always more interesting. And better yet, true!

Author Profile:  Mitzel
	Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective, and has been a Guide columnist since 1986. He manages Calamus Books near Boston's South Station.
	Email:	mitzel@calamusbooks.com
	Website:	calamusbooks.com