ABE & ANN: a novel"Gary Moore's ABE & ANN is lively, artful, and engaging, but it is also notable in managing to offer an imaginative depiction of this famous romance without altering the basic historical parameters. Perhaps his most impressive achievement is having created a really scintillating Ann Rutledge.”
Douglas L. Wilson, Top biographer of the young Lincoln, Co-Director of the Lincoln Studies Center and author of Honor's Voice and Lincoln's Sword, both winners of the Lincoln Prize.
"Moore gives voice to a woman largely ignored by history, the first love of a man before he became a legend. Written in gorgeous prose, evocative of the time, this novel had me wishing for a revision of history, rooting for a couple that could not be.”
Ann Davila Cardinal, author of Five Midnights
“I love this book about the young, poverty-stricken, backwoods Abraham Lincoln courting his first love Ann Rutledge with nothing but grammar, the poetry of Byron, and hope. ABE & ANN ...upends our revered assumptions about a beloved historical figure...in glorious, lilting prose."
Robin Oliveira, New York Times bestselling author of My Name is Mary Sutter and winner of the Michael Shaara Prize in Civil War Fiction in 2010.
“This lyrical novel of the young Lincoln in love not only kept me turning the pages until the wee hours of the night, it also grabbed me as all the best stories do. Gary Moore has written a moving tribute to how the most intimate of experiences can forever change us, and sometimes change the world.”
Thomas Christopher Greene, author of The Perfect Liar
“I have been deeply moved by this book in a way that I rarely am. It is indeed the tale of the star-crossed love between Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge and though many will have heard of their intense relations, none of us have read it rendered so tenderly as if we were in their midst. The telling by Gary Moore, the poet, is what any one would call exquisite. He will stop you in your tracks with the dialogue. And for Lincoln aficionados, avowed and otherwise, the story will deepen the sense of who the man is in a way that the House Divided Speech or Gettysburg Address simply cannot. In these speeches, we see Mr. Lincoln in the grip of politics and war. In ABE & ANN , we see the young Mr. Lincoln in the grip of love. This book is worthy of a Pulitzer Prize.”
Jim Freedman, author most recently of A Conviction in Question: The First Trial at the International Criminal Court.
“Informative, moving, insightful--Moore shows us the kind of magic that well-done biofiction can bring to our past and into our present.”
Michael Lackey, author of The American Biographical Novel
“In Moore’s hands, Ann and Abe are flesh and blood, their joy and anguish genuine and affecting. The reader wonders just how much of Lincoln’s iconic character was shaped through his smitten devotion to the complex, dazzling Ann and her shattering loss.”
Denise Brown, author of The Unspeakable
