Washington, Lincoln, and Weems: Recovering the Parson's Life of George Washington

(Previously titled Parson Weems: Maker and Remaker)

This paper argues that Mason Locke Weems’s biography of George Washington built a bridge between Washington and the world of Abraham Lincoln and Ellen Montgomery. Weems’s stories were not just expressing early-19th century cultural commonplaces, but helping to create them. The paper connects these transformations with Weems’s work to recover Weems’s importance within his own time.

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