The Reading List: The Books That Inspired George Saunders’ Lincoln In The Bardo
George Saunders, author of Lincoln In The Bardo – Dua’s Monthly Read for October – shares a reading list of the books that influenced his experimental novel. Telling the story of the death of Abraham Lincoln’s son and featuring an unforgettable cast of characters, it’s a poignant exploration of grief, loss, and the human capacity for empathy and redemption…
“First of all, there were a few really crazy books I found along the way, having to do with Lincoln himself,” says Saunders. For example…
The Unpopular Mr Lincoln: The Story of America’s Most Reviled President by Larry Tagg
“This catalogues the many insults, slurs, and criticisms directed against Lincoln during his life.”
The Physical Lincoln by John G Sotos, MD
“This goes into great detail about every aspect of Lincoln’s physicality – eye colour, bone structure, everything. What’s really interesting is the simple question of ‘How do we know that about him?’”
Reveille in Washington, 1860-1865 by Margaret Leech
“A completely charming book that does an amazing job of evoking, for a contemporary reader, the feeling of those Civil War days.”
“Second, here are a handful of books that, whether I knew it at the time or not, were always floating around in my head as aesthetic models…”
Ironweed by William Kennedy
“For those beautiful ghostly scenes in the graveyard, and for the idea that even in death we retain our foibles, perhaps even exaggerated.”
Beloved by Toni Morrison
“For the notion that a ghost might be a simpler being than he or she was in life, full of one, primal longing.”
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
“Its beautiful economy of structure puts a limit on the supernatural aspects and turns the whole thing into a poem.”
Stamped From The Beginning, Ibram X Kendi
“To write about slavery, one has to write about race – and this is a very wise book about race in America, that reinforces the idea that we are all the same but then oppression comes in and insists on differentiating us for profit and thus dividing us.”
Edie by Jean Stein and George Plimpton
“The life story of Edie Sedgwick, told by way of a beautifully edited collection of reminiscences about her that sometimes contradict.”
The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
“Especially the ending, in which an angry ghost comes back and kicks the ass of the person who killed him, sort of.”
Hadji Murád by Leo Tolstoy
“For the way he dashes fearlessly in and out of different character’s perspectives.”
Ghosts by Hans Holzer
“A massive volume recording hundreds of medium-encouraged conversations with the dead, all over America, that becomes very meta when the mediums themselves start dying off.”
