On February 2, ...

... 1922, on the 40th birthday of James Joyce, Irish expatriate, a crowd gathered outside Shakespeare & Company, the bookstore that the American expatriate publisher, Sylvia Beach, maintained in the shadow of Notre Dame, at 12, rue de l'Odéon, Paris. They awaited the arrival from Dijon, France, of the very 1st copies of Ulysses (right), the latest novel by Joyce. He and Beach are shown below left in the store, sitting in front of an edition of "the Sporting Times, also known as The Pink 'Un because it was printed on pink paper," which "contained a particularly vitriolic review of Ulysses," which claimed that the book "'appears to have been written by a perverted lunatic who has made a speciality of the literature of the latrine.'" Today Ulysses stands as a preeminent novel of the 20th century. Among its most memorable characters is Molly Bloom, modeled on Joyce's wife, Nora Barnacle (below right). (Dare we call Molly the original Desperate Housewife?) Molly's extended soliloquy -- a piece savored by actors like Fionnula Flanagan -- may be distilled into one oft-repeated word: "Yes."
... 1943 (65 years ago today), after 5 months of heavy fighting, the Soviet Union "announced the final defeat of the German 6th Army at the port of Stalingrad, in southern Russia." According to the BBC, "The battle has been described as among the most terrible of the war so far. " According to the New York Times, "more than 100,000 had been killed" in the last 20 days of the battle.

CWL---New On My Personal Bookshelf

Did Lincoln Own Slaves? And Other Frequently Asked Questions About Abraham Lincoln, Gerald J. Prokopowicz, Pantheon Press, 311 pp., Illustrations, Bibliography, Index, 2008, $24.95

A year ago, while listening to Civil War Talk Radio, hosted by Gerry Prokopowicz, I caught his mention of a book he was writing entitled Did Lincoln Own Slaves?. He cited his experience as at Fort Wayne, Indiana's Lincoln Museum. I had visited the museum, along with the nearby James Dean grave and the American Quilt Hall of Fame, during the summer of 2006. As much as I enjoyed the museum, I did not think that I needed a book of questions generated by school-aged children.

What I didn't expect was about 500 thought provoking questions with cogent and clever answers. In segments entitled The Boy, The Rail Splitter, Springfield, Politician, Speaker, President, Commander-In-Chief, Gettysburg, Lincoln the Man, Martyr, and Legacy, Prokopowicz provides answers with bibliographic citations. For example, in the section entitled 'Emancipator' parses a variety of issues relating to racism, historiography, and the logic of the question 'Did Lincoln own slaves?'.

Did Lincoln Own Slaves? may be used as a topical dictionary, or a inquiry-based encyclopedia, or even conversation generated biography. It is a book that may be read from cover-to-cover, or the reader may enjoy a section of it at any time and in any order. An additional strength of the book is that each chapter has a 'For Further Reading' section. This book is recommended for public, school and academic libriaries as well as Lincoln enthusiasts and those not familar with Lincoln and his era. Did Lincoln Own Slaves? matches 2007's bestsellerLand of Lincoln by Andrew Furguson for information and entertainment.