I hope my previous blog post gave readers a clue to this; but I really enjoyed 11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King. It is through 11/22/63: A Novel that I discovered The Lincoln Hunters, the book under consideration today.
11/22/63: A Novel from Stephen King is a fantastic work of time travel fiction. As I reviewed the book some months ago, small ideas kept coming to mind warranting deeper examination. One of these ideas was to explore The Lincoln Hunters, briefly mentioned in King’s book, and any other subtle links to King’s novel. It was a fun and rewarding journey and I found some very interesting tidbits.
I did not have much expectation with this read, never having heard of it before; as well as not having read many works from the mid-twentieth century. To my pleasant surprise, this was a superb tale! Well worth the time!
The several sections of the great marble beehive, T-R divisions started work on the new assignment. Using the preliminary Engineering reports, Traffic began plotting a time-curve for the initial shoot. Cartography uncovered a sheaf of previously used maps and wondered if they couldn’t serve once again. Library pulled from its own hefty files a set of idiomatic tables, and sketches of appropriate costumes. A subdivision of Library commenced working up the costumes. Data checked cross references, seeking background information. Personnel set upon the job of rounding up a suitable crew, beginning with Benjamin Steward, as per the client’s request.
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First published in 1958, The Lincoln Hunters was written by Wilson Tucker in hardback by Rinehart & Company Publishers.
Ten years later (1968), Ace Books released a paperback edition. In this post, it is the paperback edition which will be under consideration. The Lincoln Hunters is a relatively short novel at 192 pages (especially when set against the 849 pages of King’s 11/22/63: A Novel).
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Wilson Tucker was born in 1914 and lived most of his life in his home state of Illinois. He began his involvement with sci-fi as a fan and published his first fanzine in 1932. In 1938, he began the publication of the long-running fanzine Le Zombie. Tucker sold his first piece of his own sci-fi in 1941. Tucker wrote and published other fan-related materials and was honored later in life for his part in the growth of sci-fi fandom. Throughout his writing career, Tucker wrote more than a dozen short stories and a like number of novels.
It is interesting to note that even with his impressive accomplishments as an author and as a fandom pioneer, Tucker . . .
. . . made his principal living as a movie projectionist and theater electrician, starting as a prop man at the Majestic Theater in Bloomington, Illinois. He served as President of Local 193 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), and retired as a projectionist in 1972.[i]
Wilson Tucker died in October 2006 at the age of 91 at his home in Bloomington, Illinois—the town where Lincoln gave his “lost speech.”
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The entire plot of The Lincoln Hunters revolves around a speech given by Abraham Lincoln on May 29, 1856 in Bloomington, Illinois and the attempt to travel back in time to acquire a recording of it. In this speech, Lincoln was credited with incredible oratory and persuasive technique. Adding to this, no known transcripts or any formal written record of the speech was made. All attempts claiming to be such were roundly denounced by others who were present at the event or later debunked.
Further heightening this mythical speech, long-time friend and law-partner of Lincoln, William Herndon claimed that the famous “house divide against itself cannot stand” phrase originated in the Lost Speech along with other concepts that would become familiar later in Lincoln’s career. Things like this lead to the Lost Speech to be regarded like a buried pirate treasure; its mystique growing ever more elaborate with each telling.
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A Supplement to 11/22/63: A NOVEL Blog Post
I consider this post to be, more than anything else, a supplement to my earlier post discussing 11/22/63: A Novel. This post will explore an interesting literary aside to 11/22/63: A Novel (at least, I think it is interesting). Also, I hope to expand this supplementary series into an occasional series of posts.
The Lincoln Hunters is the only time traveling tale mentioned at all in 11/22/63: A Novel, itself a time traveling tale. The pertinent paragraph appears on page 270 of the hardback edition of 11/22/63: A Novel and is as follows:
The fall colors began to bloom—first timid yellow, then orange, then blazing, strumpet red as autumn burned away another Maine summer. There were cardboard boxes filled with coverless paperbacks at the market, and I must have read three dozen or more: mysteries by Ed McBain, John D. MacDonald, Chester Himes, and Richard S. Prather; steamy melodramas like Peyton Place and A Stone for Danny Fisher; westerns by the score; and one science-fiction novel called The Lincoln Hunters, which concerned time-travelers trying to record a “forgotten” speech by Abraham Lincoln.
In the quote, Jake Epping, our protagonist in 11/22/63: A Novel, reveals that he read The Lincoln Hunters when he time traveled back to the 1960s, yet, he makes no comment concerning this, outside of the above quote. In his original time of 2011, Jake is an English teacher at Lisbon High School. As a time traveler, he became George Amberson in the late 50s and early 1960s. I find it a little strange, even noteworthy, that Jake, finding himself in a time traveling situation, does not even make a sarcastic reference to H.G. Wells or his The Time Machine, just this passing reference to a relatively lesser known work.
Further, was it merely coincidental that in a time travel story about a president’s assassination that there is mention of another time traveling book dealing with an earlier president also assassinated? And, in King’s novel the time portal opens onto 1958; while The Lincoln Hunters was first published in 1958. I enjoy this synchronicity and do not, for one minute, believe that it was merely a happenstance.
Therefore, my interest in The Lincoln Hunters was piqued.
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Both The Lincoln Hunters and 11/22/63: A Novel spend almost no time (!) explaining the mechanics of time travel. Aside from a few basic rules, time travel happens via some mysterious, techno-arcane method. Whether bullet or rabbit-hole, the means of time travel (how it is achieved) is secondary. The rules of time travel serve only to enhance plot points and create a sense of urgency.
According to the Green Card Man in 11/22/63: A Novel, the rabbit hole “isn’t a hole at all. It’s a bubble.” That’s all the explanation given. Nothing on where it came from, who made it, or even why they watch over it—Just a cosmic mystery. This kind of situation is a favorite of Mr. King’s to write about. He returns to it over and over. The plotline of the novel unfolds around this—people, many or few, face circumstances imposed from the outside; for some inexplicable and unknowable reason.
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There are a few more posts connected to 11/22/63: A Novel that I have in mind to work on. I think they would contribute to the appreciation of 11/22/63: A Novel. I hope to share them with you all soon.
Good night.
References
Print Resources
Tucker, Wilson. The Lincoln Hunters. Ace Books: New York, 1968.
Digital Resources
Online Resources
Glyer, Mike. “A Century of Tucker.” File 770. Wordpress.com;. 23 November 2014. Web. 14 January 2019. http://file770.com/a-century-of-tucker/
Kemp, Bill. “Bloomington was the scene for Lincoln's famous 'Lost Speech'.” The Pantagraph. The Pantagraph. 14 February 2009. Web. 13 January 2019. https://www.pantagraph.com/news/bloomington-was-the-scene-for-lincoln-s-famous-lost-speech/article_d0c8df3e-c6e0-5e3b-a6e7-70cae3215293.html
Norton, Roger J. “Abraham Lincoln’s Lost Speech.” Abraham Lincoln Research Site. R. J. Norton. Web. 12 January 2019. https://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln63.html
Ruffles, Tom. “The Lincoln Hunters, Wilson Tucker.” The Joy of Mere Words. Wordpress.com. 22 September 2016. Web. 09 January 2019. https://tomruffles.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/the-lincoln-hunters-by-wilson-tucker/
Von Ruff, Al. “The Lincoln Hunters.” The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. ISFDB. Web. 07 January 2019. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?9373
Wikipedia contributors. "Lincoln’s Lost Speech." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 09 January 2019. Web. 11 January 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_Lost_Speech
Wikipedia contributors. "Wilson Tucker." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 09 January 2019. Web. 11 January 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Tucker
Yon, Mark. “The Lincoln Hunters by Wilson Tucker.” SFF World. SFF World. 09 May 2011. Web. 14 January 2019. https://www.sffworld.com/2011/05/bookreview711/
[i] Wikipedia. "Wilson Tucker."
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