You too, Abe?

The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln

by C.A. Tripp

Free Press, 384 pp., $27

Caricature ~ by Thomas Fluharty

This is a book that portrays Lincoln as having had numerous homosexual partners, while being the married father of four children. It is scheduled to be released this month, by Free Press, a division of Simon & Shuster.

In the January 17th issue of the Weekly Standard, Philip Nobile, a professor of history, attacks the author, who is now deceased, the book, which he calls a hoax, and the publishers, for their callous indifference to book publishing standards. Nobile and Dr. Tripp, a sex-researcher, undertook 10 years ago to co-author this book. But because of their strongly held irreconcilable points of view, in a few short years their good willed endeavor came to naught. However, although their literary and personal relationship ended, much of what Nobile wrote during their less contentious periods remains in the book, thus supporting, among other things, his charges of plagiarism. But much of what Tripp wrote, Nobile regards as dishonest, careless, inaccurate and unconscionably biased. He even cites him for inexcusably using quotes from fictional dialogue.

The Log Cabin Republicans, a name chosen by gay members of the GOP, is an advocacy group that is trying to bring Lincoln into its fold. Gore Vidal, in his comments on the cover of the book, states that "the argument is irrefutable." Carl Sandburg in his famous biography, "winked" at Lincoln’s "streak of lavender." And now, according to Philip Nobile, Dr. Tripp has written a book that is calculated to place Lincoln squarely under the homosexual umbrella. As one of his salient arguments, he "claims" to have established that Lincoln entered puberty at the age of 9, and according to Dr. Alfred Kinsey, Tripp's mentor, the earlier a male enters puberty the more opportunities he will have, to make homosexual choices. Tripp’s use of such pseudoscience infuriates Nobile.

It will be interesting, now, to see how the reviews of this book eventually play out. Evidently, for reasons that don’t yet clearly emanate from my cerebrum, it is becoming increasingly important for more and more people to establish their homosexual credentials as quickly and as credibly as possible. Plainly, the homosexual community is enlarging exponentially and one day very soon, heterosexuals will cease to have any biological or social legitimacy, except perhaps in remote places like the Smithsonian Institute. Given where we are, if Lincoln were asked to comment on this subject today, he would surely say, as he often did, "Sexuality is like a harp with a thousand strings."