" It's witty, fun and takes you on a wild ride in the sixties with none other than our beloved 16th president Abe Lincoln.[...]
It was definitely well-researched in my opinion with many good references to life in the turbulent sixties with very accurate social and political references. referencesonly, in my opinion, only add to the books believability. I definitely recommend this read for anybody with a love for Abe Lincoln and Americana." - Goodreads, Tina
Published: July 1st, 2016
There are whispers even now that Abraham Lincoln never really died, that a voodoo spell cursed him with a terrible eternal life. It has even been claimed that he robbed banks in the 1930s with John Dillinger, only to mysteriously disappear once again into the pages of history. But the truth is even stranger than the rumors...
Watched over by a vengeful J. Edgar Hoover and held in a secret location near his old Springfield home, Lincoln re-awakens in the 1960s, and finds himself thrust into an era even more turbulent than the Depression.
Escaping Hoover's clutches, he navigates an even more treacherous and unfamiliar terrain, finding an ally in John Voci, a young San Francisco folk-singer. Together they journey across a counter-cultural landscape, meeting those who believe a great man has returned, and striving to remain free from those who want to bury him once and for all.
GUEST POST
You Can’t Keep A Groovy President Down
When it came time to write the sequel to “Abe Lincoln: Public Enemy No. 1,” my co-author Brian and I were at a bit of a loss as to where to go with Abe’s unique story. The 1930s were a turbulent and exciting time and held a wealth of material for that first book, which often seemed to write itself. We considered having him fight Nazis in World War II or having him opposing the anti-communist paranoia in the 1950s, but for various reasons none of those grabbed our imagination. Then one day, I looked up at my bedroom wall, where I have a number of original 1960s Fillmore posters hanging and it came to me. Lincoln in the 1960s! A hundred years after his supposed death. Once again, the country is divided and threatening to tear itself apart; in its way a time as perilous as the Civil War era. To me this was the perfect age to place our errant president—in many ways he would be right at home. It was also a natural choice for another reason: J. Edgar Hoover was still alive and still the head of the FBI. With Hoover as Lincoln’s arch-nemesis once again, I thought we’d have a winner. When I spoke to Brian he wholeheartedly agreed and the writing commenced.
What we found with this book is that it wasn’t as easy to write. A part of that is the pressure of living up to the praise of the first book, while striving for something new and different. The possibilities of Lincoln as a participant in the cultural revolution of the 1960’s afforded endless possibilities, which from a writing standpoint proved both exciting and daunting. One idea we had was having Lincoln at Woodstock where Jimi Hendrix dedicates “The Star Spangled Banner” to “the groovy cat who looks like Lincoln,” but soon realized that Lincoln would have to be on the run for far too long to make the beginning of our timeline work with him awakening from his voodoo-induced coma in 1963. We needed the story’s climax occurring at least a year prior to that. We also toyed with the idea of Lincoln inadvertently becoming the leader of a thriving youth movement, but we nixed that because while these stories are alternate histories of a sort, they are also “secret histories,” in that Lincoln stays below the historical radar, influencing people on a far more personal level.
Another conscious decision in our minds is that we wanted to honor the memory of a dear friend of ours, John Voci, a multi-talented musician and songwriter with whom Brian and I went to Emerson College. John passed away in 2012. We felt his quirky and sometimes poignant songs would be a great fit to the story, so we made John a major character in the book, thus giving Lincoln a foil for both his humor and to help him navigate a world gone crazy.
The writing of “Abe Lincoln On Acid” was a wondrous journey, very much in keeping with the 1960s—freewheeling and kinetic. Brian and I hope you enjoy Abe’s new adventure. After all, you can’t keep a groovy president down!
About the authors:
BILL WALKER is an award-winning writer whose works include novels, short stories and screenplays. His first novel, Titanic 2012, was enthusiastically received by readers, and Bill's two short story collections, Five-Minute Frights and Five-Minute Chillers, are perennial Halloween favorites. A highly-respected graphic designer, Walker has worked on books by such luminaries as Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Dean Koontz and Stephen King. His most recent novel, Abe Lincoln: Public Enemy No. 1 was published in 2013.
BRIAN ANTHONY is a writer and award-winning filmmaker. His first feature film, Victor's Big Score, was praised by Variety as a "Tremendous calling card for writer-producer-director Brian Anthony" As a writer-producer Anthony has contributed to shows for American Movie Classics, Arts and Entertainment and Fox Syndication, including Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Lost in Space Forever. A veteran film historian, Anthony has been interviewed on network television regarding film history, and co-authored the acclaimed biography of film comedian Charley Chase, Smile When the Raindrops Fall, in 1998. Brian is an expert art and book restorationist, and you can see his work at Anthony Restorations.
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