ABE & ANN: a novel

by Gary Moore

Before Abraham Lincoln was a bearded wise man saving democracy, he was young, timid, and hopelessly in love.

ABE & ANN is a novel based on the little-known story of Abraham Lincoln’s passionate romance in his twenties. Auburn-haired Ann Rutledge, feisty and fed-up with propriety, is frontier royalty, the 18-year-old daughter of the founder of the rough little frontier village where the 22-year-old Abe Lincoln comes looking for work. She is lively and literate and funny, and Abe is straight off his daddy’s farm with jug ears and one change of clothes.

Homely and poor, but full of high ambition, the young Lincoln courts the dazzling red-haired woman who comes into his life like a revelation. In the spell of their feelings, the lovers question the limits in their lives and boldly dream a better future. But she is engaged to another man.

Readers who enjoyed Doris Kearns Goodwin’s bestselling Lincoln book Team of Rivals, Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster film Lincoln, and George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo will marvel again at this very different and compelling tale of Lincoln as a young man.

Not a grand historical treatment but a lyrical telling of a deeply personal tale, ABE & ANN dares to give readers an earnest but untutored Lincoln whose humanity every reader can share, who was weak before he was strong, frightened before he was bold, and deeply in love with a woman who despite their passionate encounters would never be his… or would she?

Author Gary Moore is a playwright and poet who has been making creative use of Abraham Lincoln in drama, poetry, and performance art for more than thirty years.  Gary’s bilingual musical in Shanghai, The Great Emancipator Meets The Monkey King, introduced rap-music to the People’s Republic of China six months before Tiananmen. His play based on that experience, Burning in China, sold out at the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival after being featured in the New York Times and recommended by the New Yorker.  ABE & ANN, to be published by Komatik Press in May, 2019, is his first novel.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance

251 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 15, 2019

About the author

GARY MOORE, author of the novel ABE & ANN, is a playwright and poet who has been studying and making creative use of Abraham Lincoln in drama, poetry, and performance art for more than thirty years. Gary’s bilingual musical in Shanghai, The Great Emancipator Meets The Monkey King, introduced rap-music to the People’s Republic of China six months before Tiananmen. His play based on that experience, Burning in China, sold out at the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival after being featured in the New York Times and recommended by the New Yorker. ABE & ANN, to be published by Komatik Press in May, 2019, is his first novel.

In addition to lecturing and presenting Lincoln-themed performance pieces and other plays on three continents, Gary has published two poetry chapbooks, The Little Dog Laughed and He Cures By Alliteration, along with poems in Hunger Mountain, Green Mountains Review, Numero Cinq, Circus Maximus, and other periodicals. Gary studied poetry with Elliott Coleman at Johns Hopkins and Allen Tate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Heavenly Bodies, his collection of poems about humanity’s romance with the stars, will be released by NFB Publications in the fall of 2019.

Since taking his bachelor’s degree at Johns Hopkins and his master’s degree from the Writing Seminars there, Gary has supported his writing by teaching at 13 colleges and universities, including positions in Shanghai and Istanbul. He is Dean Emeritus of Vermont College of Fine Arts and a member of the Dramatists Guild. Gary splits his time between his home state of Vermont and an airy apartment a block from the Caribbean in Puerto Rico.

Reviews

[Valleri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a giveaway and it was a fascinating look at a short period during Abraham Lincoln's early life. I have to admit that I knew nothing about Ann Rutledge before reading this historical fiction novel. Nor was I aware of Lincoln's incredible challenges during this time period. It makes me wonder what could have been if Abe had had this strong and passionate woman at his side as he traveled the road to becoming President of the United States! This is an enchanting novel - a journey of poetry, magic, and love.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young Abraham Lincoln sets off to the town of New Salem, Indiana in order to run a general store. Abe is poor, looking for work that is anything but farming and also hopes to run into a woman that he has briefly met before, Ann Rutledge. Ann's family run the Tavern in town and that is where Abe plans to stay, at least until his money runs out. During Abe's stay, he runs a store poorly and runs a militia well. All the while, he and Ann grow a well-guarded relationship centered around grammar, symbols and signs. When Ann becomes engaged and moves, Abe follows while taking the job of a surveyor while campaigning for legislature and finds out just how strong their relationship can be.

Abe & Ann is a look into Abraham Lincoln as a young man and not the formidable President that we usually think of him as. At this point in time, Abe is just starting out with no money and no education, but he does have a lot of confidence, personality and willingness to learn. His bravery shines through immediately when he decides to room at Ann's Tavern. It was interesting to see Abe in this light, where his confidence is still growing and he is constantly having to pull himself up in order to survive. I was intrigued to learn about Abe's early path to the Presidency and how this time of his life clearly influenced how he lead and policies he held. Ann was a force, a woman who deserved better than the time she lived in. Ann tried to re-write the rules favorably for herself and Abe. It was a delight to see how she was able to fit in jabs and innuendo when they spoke. Written in the third person with a lot of introspective thoughts for each character, we are really given a close look inside Abe & Ann's heads- this is good because a lot of what each character has to communicate to the other is unspoken and communicated through signals, signs and wordplay. However, for me the third person point of view failed to help me connect with a character. That being said, the point of view also led to a lyrical and poetic prose, tying in the themes of grammar, poetry and symbolism for the slow, steady and nurtured love that grew between Abe & Ann.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

[Joseph Eckhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abe & Ann is a sweet and poignant novel about the young Abraham Lincoln and his tragic love affair with Ann Rutledge. The intimate details of another time and place and the sensibilities of the characters are so evocative as to make one suspect the author is a time traveler who has witnessed the scenes he describes. The writing style is lively, at times sly and witty, but always accessible and compelling.

[Doug Wilhelm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful novel. From the very first scene, where Abe walks through a graveyard in the dark hoping a young woman he’s met just once will remember him, we’re immersed in the intensely poetic, soulful first love of an unschooled and searching young Abraham Lincoln for Anne Rutledge, a bright and spirited innkeeper’s daughter in the Illinois river town where he settles to make something of his life. Deeply researched and vividly told, the narrative brings Abe and Anne and their frontier world to life, with ample foreshadowing of the destiny he’s just starting to grope his way toward. The story ends too soon! You’ll want it to go on and on, but life was sometimes short in this America, and heartache was everywhere. Read this novel and you’ll understand Lincoln in a whole new way. And you’ll be sadder yet wiser for it.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just OK for me. With the story being historical fiction, I imagine that the situation was real and, if so, this was certainly a challenging and achingly sad part of Lincoln's life. Ann would have certainly been a much different first lady than Mary Todd Lincoln.

[Bert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fictional biography