Rich Fritzky poses five questions to forty-five individuals who have devoted much, if not all of their lives, to Abraham Lincoln. The individuals reveal what led them to him in the first place, the conversations that they would most have liked to have had with him, the words of his that they were most moved by, and the why and how of his, maybe just maybe, helping save the soul of the Republic yet again in our own time. Among those interviewed were eleven celebrated Lincoln scholars and historians, the leaders of the National Lincoln Forum, the Abraham Lincoln Association, Lincoln Groups, and Civil War Roundtables from coast to coast, two celebrated Lincoln artists, an array of Lincoln impersonators, including Gettysburg's own, curators, animators, professors, teachers, presenters, etc. They so movingly responded, inspiring and driving the author deep into Lincoln's universe and to much that is not often considered especially as to racism and race, his shadow-boxing with God, his faith and doubt, his exquisite humanity and extraordinary ability to lead, his nation of suffering and the torture it exacted upon him, and his rich reverence for both all that America was and could be.

Gettysburg is a paradox: Today it is beautiful, still, and filled with visitors, yet this national military park serves as a powerful reminder of the clash of armies and the great loss of life that took place here nearly 150 years ago. Gettysburg: This Hallowed Ground explores this Civil War battleground through contemporary photographs by National Merit Award-winning photographer Chris Heisey and poems by noted Civil War author Kent Gramm. A brief synopsis of the Battle of Gettysburg and a map of the battlefield introduce the book. Gettysburg is a tribute to the soldiers who gave their lives here and to the military park that is a lasting reminder of our country's most devastating battle.

In his latest book, Kent Gramm examines the meaning of the Civil War experience in our lives and explores philosophical and personal aspects of the War that lie outside the scope of traditional historical study. He probes the meaning of Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Antietam; the lives of U. S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, O. O. Howard, and Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce; and the legacy of the unknown participant, "somebody s darling," for whom the war would come to encompass all things. The Iron Brigade appears, along with its 20th-century successor, the 32nd "Red Arrow" Division. Readers of Gramm s previous books will not be surprised to find essays that touch on Walt Whitman, John Keats, Henrik Ibsen, and Halldor Laxness, as well as such literary and religious works as the Iliad and the Bhagavad Gita. Gramm also treats more popular fare, such as the movie Gettysburg and a series of books on the ghosts of Gettysburg. In each of his subjects, Gramm finds the deep, personal significance of the profoundly universal experience of the war, as he ponders the special meaning of the Civil War in the lives of many Americans."

It begins with the search for hallowed ground, the exact place from which Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. In bleak November, Kent Gramm makes a pilgrimage to the most famous battleground in American history and over the course of a month transforms his search into a discovery of the meaning of Lincoln s elegy for America s identity.
For Gramm, the century that began with Lincoln s address and ended with the assassinations of the 1960s saw the destruction of the 'modern' world and with it America s sense of purpose. The book reflects on the November anniversaries of public events such as the Armistice that ended World War One, Kristallnacht, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the death of C. S. Lewis, the first major battle of the Vietnam War, and the publication of Robert F. Kennedy s To Seek a Newer World, and also on private events in Gramm s family history, provide the occasions for Gramm s meditations on public and private heroism, on modernism s hopes and postmodern despair. In November, he asks us to seek a path toward the 'new birth of freedom' that Lincoln envisioned at Gettysburg.

"The month begins with things that perish. But ultimately, November is a journey of hope, as was Lincoln s journey to Gettysburg. So too I will journey to Gettysburg in these pages. Like Lincoln s fellow citizens, I go there to assuage personal grief, to find answers; and I hope, for me as for them, that my personal sorrows become a vehicle for larger answers and a larger purpose. Lincoln addressed their grief, why not mine; he gave his generation purpose, why not ours.""