My piece on C.A. Tripp’s Lincoln book, is now up at TNR. Having read the book closely, I’m struck by how obtuse some of the reviews have been. Gay journalist, Paul Varnell, in an email, put the process of assessment now unfolding thus:
1. It is simply not true at all, Tripp is all wrong.
2. It is almost surely wrong and the evidence is strained.
3. It could be true, but the evidence is insufficient.
4.There is something to Tripp’s case, but we can never know for sure.
5. It is probably true, but we must await further evaluation of the evidence. Meanwhile we should suspend judgment.
6. Tripp is, of course, right, but everyone knew this already this and it doesn’t change anything we think about his public career.
We are hovering now somewhere between 4 and 5. Read it yourself to find out. The data it collects are arresting to anyone not deeply resistant to the idea of Lincoln’s primarily homosexual orientation. And yes, of course it matters. If America’s greatest president was gay, it must play a part in the current discussion of gay equality in America. That’s why the Weekly Standard has pulled out all the stops to kill off the book. One thing none of the reviews says: the book is complemented by several essays at the end by leading Lincoln scholars, two of whom specifically differ from Tripp’s conclusions. It’s a very fair document: about as far from a “hoax” and a “fraud” as the Weekly Standard is from treating the open-ended question of Lincoln’s sexuality honestly.
The Dish 