Welcome to the bouquets, or I should say bienvino.

At least we keep looking for different ways to introduce this thing.

Anyway, I'm Charlie Gibson.

I'm Kate Gibson, and to Spanish speakers everywhere out there, I'm sorry.

Yeah, I apologize. I apologize. Both my daughters and my wife have much better facility with the Spanish language than do I. We bring you

today, John Meacham, a well-known writer who has written a new biography just out of Abraham Lincoln.

And There Was Light is the name of the book.

You know, I've read four biographies of Lincoln in the past 10 years,

and John must have had to hunt for a title.

I mean, there are thousands of books about Lincoln.

I read the white biography A. Lincoln, the Reynolds book, Abe,

David Herbert Donald's classic bio,

Lincoln. Eric Foner's great book on Lincoln, the fiery trial. So I guess John was left with,

and there is light. Well, it was either that or Abby Lincoln, you know, what they called him Abby. I don't know. I don't know. I don't have another title. He also has written some, I mean, he is an American treasure. He's written some of the greatest historical biographies. And he wrote, my personal favorite, John Meacham, is the Soul of America, which is largely about how America has come together in Times of Great Trial, and There Was Light is a terrific book in the

tradition of John Meacham's writing. Lincoln was a fascinating character, and although this is

probably the 950,000th biography on Lincoln, I found it both entertaining and I learned a heck of a lot.

Well, John writes so well, and he has given us a very

readable one-volume look at the complexities of Abraham Lincoln. He did it in just 420 pages. Can a

biography be called a page Turner? Not often, but I think this one can. I thought it was an excellent,

excellent book. And as John writes, we study Lincoln and study him and study him and

study him because of all the biographies that are up. But we study him because he was, not because he

was perfect, John Rice, but because he was a man whose inconsistencies resonate even now. The world,

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