Kindred spirits despite their profound differences in position and circumstance, Lincoln and Whitman shared a vision of the democratic character that sprang from the deepest part of their being. They had read or listened to each other's words at crucial turning points in their lives. Both were utterly transformed by the tragedy of the war. In this book, poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein tracks the parallel lives of these two titans from the day that Lincoln first read Leaves of Grass to the elegy Whitman composed after Lincoln's assassination in 1865.Drawing on the rich trove of personal and newspaper accounts, diary records, and lore that has accumulated around both the President and the poet, Epstein structures his double portrait in a series of dramatic, atmospheric scenes. Epstein brings to life the many friends and contacts his heroes shared - Lincoln's debonair private secretary, John Hay, the fiery abolitionist senator Charles Sumner, the mysterious and possibly dangerous Polish Count Gurowski - as he unfolds the story of their legendary encounters in New York City and especially Washington during the war years. Read Less