Riverside Township Presents:

Gettysburg Replies: The World Responds to

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Discussion with Dr. Carla Knorowski, CEO, Abraham Lincoln PresidentialLibrary Foundation and Dr. James Cornelius, Curator of the Lincoln Collection

at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

A unique collection of 272-word essays and poems by contributors ranging from historians to former presidents, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum’s Gettysburg Replies is a celebration of Lincoln and a tribute to the everlasting impact of his Gettysburg Address. Sponsored by Riverside Township. Almost five months after the Civil War’s deadliest clash, President Abraham Lincoln and other Union leaders gathered to dedicate the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsyl-vania. The program for the occasion featured music, prayer, orations, and benedictions. In the middle of it all, the president gave a few commemorative remarks, speaking for just two minutes, delivering what we now know as the Gettysburg Address. Challenged to mark the enormity of the battle—which had turned the tide of the war, though neither side realized it yet—Lincoln used 272 words in ten sentences to rededicate the Union to the preservation of freedom. It remains the most important statement of our nation’s com-mitment to personal liberty since the Revolutionary War, and has become one of the most important speeches in American history, a cornerstone of who we are as a country. A century and a half later, we still hold Lincoln’s message in our hearts.

Saturday, January 233 p.m.

Riverside Township Hall27 Riverside Rd

Riverside, IL 60546

For Gettysburg Replies, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation challenged presi-dents, judges, historians, filmmakers, poets, actors, and others to craft 272 words of their own to cel-ebrate Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, or a related topic that stirs their passions. President Jimmy Carter reveals how the Gettysburg Address helped bring Egypt and Israel closer at the Camp David Peace Accords. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor reflects on Lincoln’s dedication to the importance of civic education. General Colin Powell explains how Martin Luther King Jr. took up Lincoln’s mantle and carried it forward. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg touches on the benefits and perils of hero worship. Poet Laureate Billy Collins explores the dichotomy between the private man who wrote poetry (“My Childhood Home I See Again”) and the president who stood before all. Attorney Alan Dershowitz echoes Lincoln’s words to rally us to the freedom from weapons of mass destruction. Gettysburg Replies features images of important Lincoln documents and artifacts, including the first copy of the address that Lincoln wrote out after delivering it, the program from the cemetery dedica-tion, Lincoln’s presidential seal, and more. Together, these words and images create a lasting tribute not only to Lincoln himself but also the power of his devotion to freedom.

CARLA KNOROWSKI, PhD is Chief Executive Officer of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, the gift receiving entity for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. She is the editor of the best-selling Gettysburg Replies: The World Responds to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, for which she also contributed an essay and co-curated an exhibit at the ALPLM (“The Power of Words,” 2013) commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Get-tysburg Address. She has previously contributed to Lincoln: An Intimate Portrait and is at work on a new book, titled Under Lincoln’s Hat—due in the fall of 2016. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she earned a doctorate in Public Policy and Political Science, Knorowski serves on the board of directors for the Society of Midland Authors and has previously held key leadership positions at UIC, Northeastern Illinois University, and the Chicago Humanities Festival.

James Cornelius, PhD is the Curator of the Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Li-brary and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, the premier repository in the world of Lincoln manuscripts, family possessions, published works and fine or popular art. He previously was an editor at Doubleday, Random House and Collier’s Encyclopedia and a visiting assistant professor working with the Univer-sity of Illinois Illinois History and Lincoln Collections. Cornelius is the author of many books, articles, and book reviews about architecture, baseball, literature, and most of all American and British history with his most recent work focusing on Lincoln, including co-authorship on the Abraham Lincoln Pres-idential Library & Museum: Official Commemorative Guide published in 2011. He has written reviews published in the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, The Historian, Journal of Illinois History, For the People: Newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association, and Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association.

Dr. Carla Knorowski

Dr. James Cornelius

272 WordsGettysburg Repliesby Dr. Carla Knorowski, Chief Executive Officer, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation

5 Four Score and Seven

As our readers know, to commemorate its sesquicentennial, we decided to challenge people from around the world to write “272 Words” in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln. This, for many, was daunting to grasp, let alone attempt. Many refused the challenge on the basis that they could never write anything that could approximate, let alone top, the simple yet profound eloquence of Lincoln and the Address. We found ourselves doing more than our share of explaining that the point of the 272-word challenge was not to try to “top” the Gettysburg Address, write as well as Lincoln, or change the course of history. It was simply to celebrate the 16th President and his words. It was hoped that essayists, in trying to get their message across in only 272 words, would come to realize in a deeper, more personal way the greatness of the Address and just how eloquent and gifted a communicator Lincoln was.

We asked our essayists to write about the 16th President, Gettysburg, the Gettysburg Address, or a cause that inspires them. Gettysburg Replies is a compilation of 100 essays selected from the more than 1,000 written by people from all walks of life. The essays are powerful, eloquent, and insightful. They are a lasting tribute not only to the greatness of Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, but to the power of both the written and handwritten word. Yes, in addition to writing 272 words, essayists were challenged to walk further in Lincoln’s footsteps and write out their

essays longhand on the stationery of their choice. Some essayists, faced with the challenge of both writing and handwriting, chose only the former. Others embraced the two. Many had to rediscover the seemingly lost art of applying pen to paper rather than fingers to keyboard. Some authors sheepishly revealed that it was easier to compose the essay than write it out by hand, but admitted that handwriting it made the challenge all the more appealing, while describing the process as “painful,” “humbling,” and in some cases “humiliating.” In the end, some of our essayists chose hand lettering instead. These choices—what to write about, whether to type or write it out longhand, what stationery to use—all add to the depth and richness of Gettysburg Replies, the 272-word project, to the essays, and to the essayists themselves as we view the slants, curves, and styles of their very personal penmanship.

Now, almost two years after the 272-word project was launched, the journey has led to Gettysburg Replies, a compilation of 21st century thought. Among the 100 essayists featured in the book are all five living U.S. Presidents, filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Kathy Kennedy, Ken Burns, Sal Litvak and Jake Boritt, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and astronaut Jim Lovell, poets Nikki Giovanni, Kevin Stein and Billy Collins, students Katherine Hitchcock, Grace Richards, David Walser, Caleb Lewis and Ginny Greer, jurists Sandra Day O’Connor and Judith “Judge Judy” Sheindlin, scholars Harold Holzer,

Tom Schwartz and Allen Guelzo (among others) Holocaust survivor Sam Harris, Medal of Honor recipient Allen Lynch, USS Abraham Lincoln sailors Danian Douglas, Jeremy Crandall and Amanda Kilpatrick, Generals Colin Powell and John Borling, and many, many others. Gettysburg Replies is a who’s who of 21st century thought all inspired by the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln. The book, published by Lyons Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, is now available in stores or online at giftshop.presidentlincoln.org. The 204-page book includes 100 essays and 205 photos. All royalties from the book go to benefit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM), so please consider adding this already fast-selling page-turner to your own personal collection. When you do, you will be furthering your already generous support of the ALPLM. Thank you.

272 WORDS—the number of words Lincoln used in the Gettysburg Address. Challenged to speak about the enormity of Gettysburg, Lincoln used a mere 272 words, in 10 sentences, to convey the greatest, most important message of the time—some say of all time. We still hold sacred its message.

Available now!