John Cribb's sweeping historical novel The Rail Splitter covers Abraham Lincoln's early days, charting his path from a rough-hewn log cabin to the White House.

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Old Abe is the best book on President Lincoln I have ever read. It is deeply inspiring.

This is the best book about Abraham Lincoln I've ever read. Why? In most books about him, you learn something about his life and times, his policies, the Civil War, and so on. But in the end, there is still something unapproachable about him. He's still that rigid, copper image staring toward the edge of the penny.

This novel turns that copper face into a walking, talking, breathing fellow. And we walk right beside him, through the most catastrophic years in American history. John Cribb has brought Lincoln to life for us. We are with him for every blow and triumph of his journey and come to know his heart and soul as he fights to save the Union.

Abraham Lincoln’s life and struggles have been told and re-told in a variety of formats and perspectives. This new release—Old Abe: A Novel by John Cribb—is remarkable for its straightforward depictions of the sixteenth president during the Civil War. The novel’s angle, writing style, and historical details will appeal to generations of readers.

Cribb trains his attention on Lincoln’s life between 1860-1865. Even as it foreshadows the tragic end of Lincoln’s life, the novel never takes on an overly dark tone—maintaining a sprite narrative momentum throughout.

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In Old Abe, John Cribb accomplishes what all historical novelists try to do, but few pull off: he makes familiar history new again and transforms historical figures into vivid characters. Abraham's integrity, Mary's depression, McClellan's delays—the stirring victories, the military defeats, the personal tragedy—the people and events of countless biographies and histories are given fresh drama and color. This impressive work is for the history buffs and fiction fans alike.

This is a beautiful and vivid telling of our 16th president’s last five years, marked by unimaginable crises and desperate personal tragedies and spousal burdens, none of which, even en masse, were able to crush Lincoln’s wisdom, humor, and compassion. Or political successes. Cribb presents a Lincoln that many yearn for, the man pictured, unfinished, in our imaginations, more a concept, but one begging to be completed. Cribb provides the flesh and bone and attitude and dialogue.

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There are a lot of history books, and a lot of books on Lincoln, but I can't think of any that bring "the martyred Christ of democracy's passion play" to such a wonderful new life as John Cribb's Old Abe. That which we truly need to know is given a strong, new breath of fresh air here. And you cannot put it down. I'll be giving this book out as a gift for years, for it is a gift to American history as well as the understanding of the life of Lincoln. 

Beginning in 1860, the reader is immersed in the life of Abraham Lincoln from a personal viewpoint that brings the man to life in a very human manner... Overall, this is a fantastic novel that immediately grips the imagination and makes the reader feel as if they have journeyed through the peaks and valleys of his presidential life and have come to know this historical great on a personal level.

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John Cribb’s inspiring and well researched novel Old Abe will inform and delight readers as it brings us up close and personal with one of America’s most impactful presidents during a dark time in American history.  We see Abraham Lincoln not only as the serious, often brooding man as he's so often depicted, but also as a multidimensional, living, breathing man of great humor and passion who could “make a cat laugh.” Old Abe the man and Old Abe the novel appeal to the better angels of our nature, both as individuals and as a country. Cribb’s debut novel is a triumph and I recommend it for all readers, young and old alike.

Cribb brings us so close to Lincoln in "Old Abe" that we shudder to read Chapter 52, titled "April 14, 1865." Knowing the result of that fateful day, we ache when Lincoln says to Gen. Grant (who chose not to attend the evening's theater performance), "We're going to have good times now, and a united country." And we swallow hard when, just before Lincoln is shot, Cribb's prose reveals the president's thoughts about his family: "They must all make more time for each other--more time for laughing, for afternoon drives, for evenings at the theater." "Old Abe" gives us history, some of which we've read before and some of which is revealing, but it does more: it gives us Abe Lincoln in the flesh.

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In this fictional account of the last five years of Abraham Lincoln’s life, Cribb draws on copious research to provide an in-depth and personal account of a turbulent time through the eyes of the great man himself. Opening with Lincoln’s presidential bid and subsequent election, Old Abe follows Lincoln as he heads to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration, evades assassination attempts, tries to hold the country together, and ultimately oversees the Union’s defeat of the Confederate forces and the reassembling of a battered and bruised country. The political climate and certain hotly contested issues from the mid-1860s are uncannily similar to what the United States is experiencing now, and Old Abe will make readers long for a leader like Lincoln.

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This 323 page novel of the last four years of Lincoln's life is a complete triumph.  Abe Lincoln was the poster child for perseverance (which is why we're featuring it in OCTOBER instead of February). The backwoods prairie lawyer-turned-statesman shepherded the nation through the four-year war that ended slavery and saved the Union, but cost hundreds of thousands of lives and the life of his young son as well. In this book, we are in the mind and heart of Lincoln from his election to the end of the Civil War.

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A deftly penned historical novel that showcases the author's genuine flair for originality, a close and entertaining story that accurately adheres to historical detail, and the kind of narrative driven storytelling style that fully engages the reader's attention, Old Abe by John Cribb will prove to be an immediately and enduringly popular addition to personal reading lists, as well as community and college/university library collections.

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"Old Abe," by John Cribb, is a profound novel about the final five years of Abraham Lincoln's life, years that some would consider the most cataclysmic years of America's history. Cribb, a New York Times bestwelling author, spent more than a dozen years researching and writing this novel that come at an appropriate time when Americans are more divided than ever before. This novel reminds us of our great history and portrays the president who embodies our finest idea.

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Cribb's intimate debut novel puts readers into the mind of Abraham Lincoln during the turbulent last five years of his life.

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There have been more books written about the 16th President of the United States and the Civil War that commenced at the beginning of his first term in office than on any other subject in American history. However, virtually all of them have been in the nonfiction genre.

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But John Cribb’s new book, Old Abe, takes a deep dive into the final five years of the life of arguably our greatest president through a different lens, that of fiction. The author spent a decade pouring over personal letters, government documents and written reports from various other primary and secondary sources in an attempt to capture the essence of the man and the tumultuous times during which he guided the fractured nation.

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Although we’re listing only fiction on this list, “Old Abe” by John Cribb is a story so developed from primary and secondary research it could qualify as a nonfiction title. The novel covers the last years of Lincoln’s life, and although it is cliche to state that fictional memoirs can bring their subjects to life, the plotting, detail and storytelling of Cribb’s novel does just this.

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Many book critics and reviewers are calling author John Cribb's book Old Abe (Abraham Lincoln) the best book on the former president in many years.  Cribb, a native of Spartanburg, was recently on the campus of Isothermal Community College and dropped by WNCW to talk about his book during this Friday Feature Interview of the Week on October 22, 2020.  Cribb decided to focus his story on the last five-years of Lincoln's life.

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We all know the back story of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, but did we ever consider what his life was truly like. This book takes readers on the epic journey of the last five years of Lincoln’s life. From the moment he is elected, to the bloody battlefields in Virginia, to the loss of his second child, Lincoln faced incredible struggles. His marriage faced hardships, but the love between Lincoln and his wife is inspiring. Author, John Cribb does an excellent job depicting Lincoln’s life and final moments. History buffs and historical fiction fans will want to read this book.

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