Bill Clinton & Lincoln’s Melancholy

Part I
On Feb. 14, 2006, Bill Clinton showed up at a book party in Harlem, held in a space adjoining his office. When conversation turned to books he’s read, Clinton brought up Lincoln’s Melancholy. He’d been reading it, he said, as he traveled on Air Force One to Coretta Scott King’s funeral, when President George W. Bush walked by and noticed the book. Clinton said he’d send him a copy — and did.

(source: “Last Night I Dreamed I Went to Washington Again,” by Campbell Robertson, The New York Times, 2/15/2006 & Robertson, interview with J.W.S., 2/15/06)

Part II
Clinton also had Lincoln’s Melancholy in his briefcase when, in late January, he met the L.A. Times’s Ronald Brownstein for an interview about his reading. Clinton talked about what he learned from Lincoln’s story:

“I don't know if he could get elected today with his mental health history. But what I learned was that when Lincoln became president and the country was coming apart at the seams and he was trying so hard to hold it together, he almost became so absorbed in the work and the mission and the suffering of others that it lifted the burden off of him.”

(source: “Clinton’s Reading List Was Wide and Varied,” by Ronald Brownstein, The Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2006)

Part III

In June, Clinton approached Jay Winik , author of April, 1865, at another book party, and asked Winik what he thought of Lincoln’s Melancholy. “Fascinating,” Winik said. “And intriguing.”

Clinton said, “I wanted to write that book, but he beat me to the punch. I was going to write it next year. I love Lincoln -- for all of his problems, he grows larger with history.”

(source: “In the Loop: Honest Abe and Honest Bill," by Al Kamen, The Washington Post, Friday June 16, 2006.)