Lincoln's Shakespeare

Throughout his adult life, Abraham Lincoln read and committed to memory the plays of William Shakespeare. As President, he saw all the great Shakespearian actors of the day on stage—James Hackett, Edwin Forrest, Edwin Booth, and even that great tragedian’s younger brother, future assassin John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln often rated their performances, transfixing visitors with recitations of the words as he believed they should be dramatized. Combining history and drama, renowned actors of today will perform the soliloquies Lincoln loved best and recited most often while narrator Harold Holzer sheds light on the 16th President’s long and sometimes fraught relationship with The Bard.