Lincoln: A Foreigner's Quest

by Jan Morris

With a fresh eye and inimitable style, the peerless travel and history writer Jan Morris journeys through the life of Abraham Lincoln to sketch an insightful new portrait of America's sixteenth president, one of our greatest and most enigmatic figures. Looking past his saintly image and log-cabin legend, Morris travels from Lincoln's birthplace to the White House to the infamous Ford Theater and conjures him in public and in private, as politician and as father, as commander-in-chief and as husband. With her skepticism and humor and marvelous sense of place, Morris seamlessly blends narrative, history, and biography to reveal the man behind the myth.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Civil War, Presidents, American History

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

Jan Morris was a British historian, author and travel writer. Morris was educated at Lancing College, West Sussex, and Christ Church, Oxford, but is Welsh by heritage and adoption. Before 1970 Morris published under her assigned birth name, "James ", and is known particularly for the Pax Britannica trilogy, a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, notably Oxford, Venice, Trieste, Hong Kong, and New York City, and also wrote about Wales, Spanish history, and culture.

In 1949 Jan Morris married Elizabeth Tuckniss, the daughter of a tea planter. Morris and Tuckniss had five children together, including the poet and musician Twm Morys. One of their children died in infancy. As Morris documented in her memoir Conundrum, she began taking oestrogens to feminise her body in 1964. In 1972, she had sex reassignment surgery in Morocco. Sex reassignment surgeon Georges Burou did the surgery, since doctors in Britain refused to allow the procedure unless Morris and Tuckniss divorced, something Morris was not prepared to do at the time. They divorced later, but remained together and later got a civil union. On May, 14th, 2008, Morris and Tuckniss remarried each other. Morris lived mostly in Wales, where her parents were from.

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was superficial and glib, and not in a good way. Because Jan Morris can give good glib; but not here. And so much of what is written here is just wrong, little things and big things.

A little thing: when she finally gets around to talking about Ulysses S. Grant, she calls him Ulysses Simpson Grant. But the "S" didn't stand for anything, was just a clerical mistake. A less little thing: Morris visits the cabin at City Point that Grant shared with his wife and six year-old son near War's end, and she felt it still smelt of cigar smoke and whiskey. Yet, although an alcoholic, Grant famously never drank in front of his wife.

A little bigger thing: Morris writes that Lincoln was sexually complex, possibly gay, and almost certainly bisexual, and likely Stephen Douglas's lover. There is as much evidence for any of these assertions as, as, as, as there is that the 2020 U.S. Presidential election was rife with massive voter fraud.

But then Morris does not pretend to be an academic historian. (There is no bibliography and the only work she mentions is Carl Sandburg's, which is more art than scholarship.) She settles in to a place, looks around, then gives her impressions, usually with a gifted purchase on the language. She did that here, first arriving - and settling with her family - in the American South in the 1950s. She looked around and saw "white trash." And she extrapolates: If Lincoln were to be born today, he would be born in a mobile home.

Morris admits to writing this with a sense of European superiority, observing things "slightly de haut en bas." And that comes through. The danger though for would-be de Tocquevilles, it seems to me, is to misjudge the vastness and the pockets of this country, the complexities of the people. If one insists on saying America is this or Americans are that, then the sayer will have gotten it wrong.

And so, when Morris concludes that Americans of the 1950s revered Lincoln and that Americans fifty years later held him in disrepute, I see she was largely convinced by a conversation she had on a street corner with one woman waiting for a bus and by one fifteen year-old's online post. And that saddened me.

Still, Morris could enchant me with a sweet turn-of-phrase and the wise observation, like this one:

If Shakespeare had written a play about Lincoln -- if only! -- it would not have been one of his history plays, but one of his dark tragedies, full of ghosts and premonitions.

Yes, if only!

----- ----- ----- -----

So I got to the end and found that Jan Morris was not surprised at my disappointment. She referenced an Edward R. Murrow quotation that she cherished, one he used as a reply for fractious critics. And, speaking perhaps to me, she wrote:

I have often used it myself, and when readers of this book remonstrate with me about misjudgments, or misinterpretations, or misunderstandings of the American way, or if that lady in the California cafe on page 17 chances to come across these conclusions, I shall fall back once again on its formula. Dear Sir or Madam, I shall say as Murrow did, you may be right.

Yes, and Rest in Peace, Jan Morris, for you may after all be right.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like grape jelly, the obsession with Abraham Lincoln was something about American life that world traveller Jan Morris could never understand. Here she sets out to discover the melange of history and myth that composes the 16th president. She succeeds remarkably well in giving not only the salient facts of Lincoln’s life but also a fair assessment of his character, in a lighthearted and accessible book that has neither the heft nor the heavy-going tone of a standard biography. Her discussion of his rhetorical style is especially good. In a few passages she imagines the reader into scenes, as when “Mr. and Mrs. Smith of Liverpool” turn up at the White House and find Abe playing with kittens in his stockinged feet.

Here are a few of the best pithy observations:

He might be a bookworm and an oddball, but he was a practiced slow teller of homespun jokes, occasionally scatological (probably in the fart-and-turd kind)

He was an unassuming but not, I think, a modest man. He always talked of his plainness, but I suspect he protested too much: he surely knew that his unmistakable face was one of his great assets, and he was never indifferent to publicity—in his pockets when he died they found eight laudatory press cuttings.

He was essentially a nice man. Academic historians cannot allow themselves such flip idiomatic judgments, but to an outsider like me that seems about the truth of it. He was a nice man. He could be scheming, irritable, disingenuous, but he was never pompous or overbearing. [Karl Marx called him “one of the few men who became great while remaining good.”]

[Bought for $3.99 at Wonder Book and Video, Frederick, Maryland.]

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Jan Morris, and I'm keen to read more - she has a good eye for evoking/imagining place. Less of a history and more of a personal history of the author working through her own preconceptions and discoveries, but after watching Manhunt I'm (un)fortunately going to be reading lots more about Lincoln so this is just the starting point!

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a longtime fan of Jan Morris and this book was up to her usual standard: engaging, well written, informative. This book does not pretend to be a biography of record. It is highly impressionistic but like all her books, she has done her homework and her musings are girded with facts. This book reminded me of Nancy Mitford's biographies in that the tone is casual but the scholarship is not. I really enjoyed this book and am grateful to it since it is likely to be the only biography of Lincoln I ever bother to read.

[Ted Moisan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uncharacteristically bad. There are better books about Lincoln and everything Morris wrote is better.

[Madeleine Mamaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this in a used bookstore, and am glad I did. This is a good summary of Lincoln's life and a unique angle on the subject. Unfortunately, the writing is littered with ultra-academic language AND mind boggling factual errors (i.e., the Donner Party did not eat each other in the Rocky Mountains!). Where were the editors? Nevertheless, it was worth the time and effort.

[SusanJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would read anything at all by Jan Morris; this one fit in with my passing interest in Lincoln and travel writing. As always Morris's perspectives and random factoids bring a freshness to the topic that I seldom find elsewhere. Of the other Morris books I've read, this one reminds me most of her "Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere" -- it's not too long, and it helps if you're already very interested in the subject before you pick it up.

I wonder if goodreads has a "fans of Jan Morris" discussion somewhere.... :-)

[Stacy Hawks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comparing our 16th President to grape jelly was the first thing that caught my interest when I picked up and started reading Jan Morris. Engaging, informative, and very well written, it was this book that got me interested in wanting to learn more about Lincoln. It is now part of my bookshelf. Highly recommend this read.

[Tony Lawrence]

Found this interesting-looking book in a converted chapel in North Wales. Debunking the Lincoln myth; I shall find out :)

I must admit that I only read this because it has been hanging around as by longest-lived ‘to be read’...but I’m glad I did, as it's been a real revelation about the history of the USA, the opening up of the American ‘Middle’ West and the Civil War, and a gem of a pocket-sized biography. I’ve read some Jan Morris in the past, so I was expecting – and wasn’t disappointed - by the cynical, slightly mocking style. And although she doesn’t have much positive to say about the Americans in general, she warmed towards Abe Lincoln in the end, despite starting the book by comparing him to the ubiquitous US love for ‘grape jelly’. The myth of Lincoln stays almost intact, but I’m now much better informed about the man and the persona, ‘everybody, grown a little taller’.

In this small book, Morris follows Abe’s footsteps and meteoric rise from Kentuckian ‘white trash’ to the 16th President who ‘won’ the Civil War, reunited the Union and emancipated the black slaves...of course it wasn’t as simple, and, if you’ll excuse the pun, or as black and white as that. But Lincoln was a complex, fascinating man, no less interesting from a distance by dint of his many flaws (I wonder if we’ll be saying that about Dubya in a few years time!!) I love how his very humanity comes across; an ungainly, ugly man, embarrassed with women, clever, manipulative and vacillating, hen-pecked, God-less (‘a profound half-pagan sense of mysticism’), depressive (‘a knight of the mournful countenance’) & melancholic. Morris writes very well, with a great eye for pathos and melodrama, with some sublime prose alongside the barest of facts, and selected anecdote and opinion.

I liked this description from author Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), ‘your true Kentuckian wore his hat at all times, tumbled himself about, put his heels on the tops of chairs and mantelpieces…and is altogether the frankest, easiest, most jovial creature living.’

Lastly, about Lincoln’s depression, caused by, ‘...the long accretion of sadnesses in his life’, and a quote from a long time friend and colleague Herndon, ‘melancholy dripped from him as he walked’.

[Chris Majoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leuk boekje over Abraham Lincoln. Geschreven door een Engelse die verwonderd is over de status die Lincoln heeft in de US en tracht te begrijpen waar dit beeld vandaan komt door relevante plaatsen uit zijn leven te bezoeken. Het is niet echt een biografie, daar is het niet diepgaand genoeg voor. Maar het schetst wel een beeld van de man en zijn tijd. Wat zeker gezegd kan worden is dat hij atypisch was zowel door zijn voorkomen, door zijn melancholie, door zijn wilskracht. Vandaag de dag wordt er ook door sommigen wel op een wat andere manier naar hem gekeken dan in het verleden. Een heilige was het zeker niet, maar wel een zeer opmerkelijke figuur in de Amerikaanse geschiedenis. Onder zijn bewind zijn de meeste Amerikaanse doden ooit in een oorlog gevallen, maar het is ook pas na zijn bewind dat het echt de United States of America zijn geworden.
Leuk geschreven, met veel humor. Soms blijft het een beetje te oppervlakking en worden er soms dingen gesugereerd waar dan verder niet op ingegaan wordt, wat wel jammer is.

[E.A. Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even Morris couldn't hold on to her usual cynicism through the whole book. A bit of admiration slips in once in a while. An admission that Lincoln was genuinely good, decent man - even though he was a politician!

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book.

[Chris Freudenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting and very readable book! It provides a useful lens for those of us who are not American but dominated by its media and politics.

[Christian Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautifully written; men are their circumstances. great men rise to them.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange and skeptical little biography of Lincoln.

[Justin Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who live in the United States, our conception of the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, is often fairly clear. We can conceptualize his importance to the history of our country and the continuing relevance of the Civil War era. But what if you were someone not from the land of Lincoln? What would you think of him in light of your own country’s history?

These questions are partially, as well as beautifully, answered by Jan Morris, in her biography-come-travel-diary, Lincoln: A Foreigner’s Quest (2000). Morris, known for her extensive histories on British history and travel memoirs, turns her attention to the “Great Emancipator” with a critical eye as well as a sympathetic ear. She traces his epic story through the backwoods of Kentucky and the sprawling new Metropolises of Illinois to the heights of power in Washington, D.C. and beyond.

She sees him as a tragic figure, “made for martyrdom,” whose political cunning, pragmatism, and military calculation made him the premier leader of his age as well as the best political writer America ever produced. She also sees his limitations— on slavery, on Native American affairs, and a willingness to turn the other cheek when force was needed. For all his complexity, though, Morris gets the essence of Lincoln right, referring to him as many others did as “a great man who is also good.”

It is an excellent book for readers interested in learning about Lincoln, especially if you know little about him or the era he inhabits. Morris writes in a fun, conversational, and often funny style that reads like a chat over drinks at the local tavern in Springfield. I particularly enjoyed her meditations on Lincoln as a writer, whose influences (the Bible, Shakespeare) he openly wore on his sleeve. In her estimation, Lincoln’s placement at the center of the American story, with all the conclusions that draws, is a correct arrangement for foreigners and native-born alike.

[fleegan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yes, I am a bit obsessed with Abraham Lincoln at the moment. I did not like this book very much. Ms. Morris is a British author and she writes this book as a sort of quest to find out how she ultimately feels about the glory (i guess) that is given to Abraham Lincoln. On the one hand it's interesting to see a foreigner's take on such a huge part of American history, but on the other hand Ms. Morris is kinda bitchy at the beginning of the book, and towards the end when she seems a bit charmed by Lincoln it's as though the whole journey for her was an annoyance in that she still doesn't know what to think about Lincoln.

And it's not that I don't understand her humor, I do, it just... doesn't work in this book. She's pretty insulting at the beginning, when she talks about being in Kentucky (or perhaps it was Indiana) and one of the locals approached her and talked to her. She made a big deal about it like the guy was there to ruin her day or something. When in fact, the very fact that the local came up and talked to her, gave her a story for her book that went on to prove the very point she was making in the book about southern people and the way they talk to anyone/everyone.

The only good thing about the book is that it gives a general overview of Lincoln's life without getting too detailed in any one part. But at the same time, as books about Abraham Lincoln go, this one is unnecessary.

[Claire Brown]

Interesting book so far. The premise is unique in that it is from the perspective of a British-born author who was initially very turned off by the Lincoln mythology. It is a story about Lincoln but also about the author's own travels to placed Lincoln lived and experiences writing the book. I was sitting next to a guy on a plane yesterday and he recommended "Team of Rivals" when he noticed I was reading this book. That may be my next.

[JMM · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Jan Morris but, oh! The misleading information in this book! Following her on this journey to various Lincoln sites had its pleasurable moments, but the pleasure was taken away from me each time she presented some wild inaccuracy as fact. Please don't let this be the only Lincoln book you ever read.

[Kerrfunk · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second Lincoln book I read consecutively. Morris was sharp, occasionally painfully aggressive as she deconstructed St. Abe. The foreign perspective was nice, but the writing a little erudite for my liking. I'm glad I read it but I do not hunger to read it again.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable book. Contained much information I was unaware of. I intend to read more about Lincoln in the near future.

[Regine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unhagiographical reading of Lincoln's life from an outsider perspective. Affecting vision of Lincoln as a man with an artistic temperament and intimations of mortality.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

good book although sometimes referencing British history of which I was unfamiliar

[Ryan Burke · Rating 3 out of 5]

When author Jan Morris first visited the United States in the 1950s, she felt that Abraham Lincoln's image was much like the grape jelly served in diners and coffee shops. It was "synthetic, oversweet, slobbery of texture, artificially colored and unavoidable." She wondered, however, if her assessment then had been correct, and decided to "follow his life and career wherever it took him." From his roots in England and Wales, through Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and on to Washington, she emphasizes that he was not just "everybody grown taller" or an idealized Huck Finn. Throughout the book, Morris goes from his days as a toddler, to his teenage years, to his early days as a politician, and to his presidency. Although the book does a good job hitting nearly every aspect of his life, I didn’t fully enjoy the book. I certainly learned some new parts of his life that I had previously not known, but all the big events that occurred in his life (like the Civil War years) were things I already knew. If you are a huge fan of Lincoln, I would not suggest this book because of the cliche facts about his life simply being restated. However, if you want to learn a little bit of everything about Abraham Lincoln, then this is your kind of book.

[Kyle Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jan Morris’s offers a different type of commentary on Abraham Lincoln’s life in Lincoln: A Foreigner’s Quest. She relays Lincoln’s life in a humorous yet informative manner. Instead of focusing solely on Lincoln’s major accomplishments, she also delves into more personal and unknown pieces of information regarding Abe. The story is written chronologically, beginning with Lincoln’s childhood which took took place in some backwoods. It progresses to his teenage and adult years in Illinois. The bulk of the story is about Lincoln’s time as President of the United States.
I found the story somewhat boring to begin because Lincoln’s childhood was frankly boring. However, once the story reached Lincoln’s time as a politician, I was much more fascinated. Most of the events corresponded to what I learned in my US history class. For example, Morris depicts the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln’s involvement in the Anaconda Plan during the Civil War, and finally his assassination by John Wilkes Booth. Jan Morris also provides a great deal of information about Lincoln’s family and the role they played in his life. Lincoln: A Foreigner’s Quest provided me with a much different perspective on Lincoln. I never really expected him to be quite as desolate as he was described, yet he possessed a comical side to him. Morris’s biography is a must read for anybody interested in learning more on the life of Abraham Lincoln.

[Greg G. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most other biographies focus only on Lincoln’s presidency, but this book looked at all of Lincoln’s life, personal and public. The fresh perspective from a person who was not American was interesting. Seeing how people misunderstand Lincoln’s accomplishments and their importance to the U.S. was very intriguing and it brought a fresh feeling to American Culture. However, there were times throughout the book that it seemed like Morris, the author, was just bashing Lincoln and even America as a whole. Lincoln is one of my favorite presidents so this did not sit well with me. It would have been nice to hear more about what happened after Lincoln's murder, to both his family and his country. This is the first book I read by Morris and honestly I was not impressed, but I have heard that the consensus is that this is one of her weaker works. I hope that the next work from her that I read is more enjoyable for me.

[Tim Christman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abraham Lincoln is undoubtedly one of the most known American icons. Most people in society would view him as an honorable president. This is not the case however in the perspective of Jan Morris. She views the 16th president as, " another party politician anyway." In this biography Morris talks about Lincoln from his early life, through the civil war, and up to his demise. She even tracked all of the places where Abraham lived during certain periods of his life. Morris tells the audience of his childhood in Indiana and Kentucky, to his time in New Orleans, and finishes with him settling down in Springfield, Illinois. Later on Morris talks about the end portrayal of Lincoln's life, Morris writes about how Abe was a poet if anything. When talking about Lincoln's overall life and the legacy he left, Morris cannot believe how Americans view him as a folk hero. She states that the best thing Lincoln had ever done was make the Gettysburg Address. This statement neglects the fight to end slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation; two things that had a major impact on America's future. The author's biased views of Abraham Lincoln gives this book much authenticity. This book is very different than many other Lincoln books because it comes from an "outside source." Jan Morris who is from Wales used her foreign interpretation of Lincoln when she was writing this biography. I liked the book because it gave me an idea of how non-Americans viewed our leaders. The book from a factual standpoint was pretty well addressed, but I would have liked the author to use more of her foreign influence on the book than she had. The reason being is that there are a lot of books about our 16th president. Morris does address certain topics in a biased way, but the book would have been much more unique if she added more of those views. If you are a die hard fan and need to know everything about Abraham Lincoln this book is for you.