Courtesy of Jan Jacobi
Jan Jacobi is a St. Louis educator and long-time Abraham Lincoln enthusiast.
He recently tackled the task of writing a young adult novel about a teenage Lincoln in the future president’s own voice. Jacobi, who currently teaches middle school at The St. Michael School of Clayton, will hold an author talk and book signing for the novel, Young Lincoln, at the Kirkwood Public Library at 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 17.
Here, he talks to SLM about his writing process, challenges, and that time he was once mistaken for a Lincoln impersonator.
Is this your first foray into writing for young people? Yes. It was a challenge. I've taught writing for a long time. But, when you do it, it's harder than you might think. I was very lucky in that I worked with Reedy Press, which is in St Louis. At one point, we sent the manuscript up to a young adult editor in Chicago. When it came back, there was a lot of rewriting to be done. It's funny when you get those edits and you kind of fight them a little bit. But I ended up adopting about 99 percent of what she felt would improve the book.
Courtesy of Jan Jacobi
What inspired you to write the book? I've been a school teacher or administrator for 45 years. When I taught seventh and eighth graders, they would ask, "Have you got a book we could read about Abraham Lincoln?"
There really wasn't one. There are a lot of juvenile books that are very good and they are, of course, adult biographies. But there was nothing in between. So I had a colleague who said, "You know Lincoln. and you're a good writer. You ought to do a young adult novel about Abraham Lincoln."
Tell me about the writing and publishing process. The process took seven years and, in the middle of that, I was kind of discouraged by the publisher, who turned it down originally. They [suggested] it ought to be first person, told in the voice of Abraham Lincoln. At first, I said, "No one can do that." But I did, and it was just fortunate that was very natural. I think it changed it into a much more effective story. I think that young adults will like this book because it's Lincoln’s story told by himself. I have a friend who is a Lincoln scholar who said, "You really captured Abraham Lincoln’s voice." I take that as a wonderful compliment.
It's not a perfect process. The initial book started when Lincoln was in New Salem (Illinois) in his twenties, and the publisher wanted a book that started from his early years in Kentucky. So I had to go back and rewrite that. There was a summer where I sat in the Clayton library branch, and it just came to me. It was like sitting there with my pen and my computer and having the thing write itself. That was the first five chapters. My composing comes pretty easily, but it’s the process of editing, rewriting, and reworking that’s difficult for me.
What was the most challenging part? The hardest part for me was probably tying the threads together throughout the narrative and really making sure the story moved along effectively. When it was in third person, the narrative was even bumpier. It was not linear. So, when we got a linear narrative in there, some of the threads came together and the dialogue worked and the first person viewpoint worked. It all fit together.
What was one important takeaway you gathered about Lincoln as a person? I have a feeling he was a person who spent a lot of time by himself. Although he was very involved and gregarious person, he took a lot of time to be by himself. That might be surprising because in the modern situation, people, if they're alone, sometimes feel very lonely.
I think Lincoln really needed and loved that time. He didn't sit around feeling lonely. He needed that time of solitude just to think things over, and it's actually where I think he also learned to deal with his depression. I also encourage young people to take time alone. It seems they are always online with something and I say, “Put that away and go take a walk.”
What do you think Lincoln had in common with young people today? Lincoln had a very overbearing father and his mother died when he was young. His father wanted him to be a farmer like he was and and Abraham Lincoln didn't want to do that. So there was real tension. At the same time, he had a wonderful stepmother. So I think relationships with parents are things all people experience. Hopefully, they're in good families and parents are happy and all that, but there are tensions that young people feel with their parents and Lincoln certainly had those.
As a young person, he was awkward around girls. I think people still feel that some today. He had religious doubts. And, as a teenager, he had no idea what path to take in life. When he went to New Salem at the age of 22, he referred to himself as "a piece of floating driftwood," and I think people can relate to that. I think the thing that's important for young people is that, what really worked for him is that, in his twenties, he had three or four mentors who meant a great deal to him. I tell my students to look for mentors around them who they can look up to and learn from.
Tell me about the time you were once confused for Lincoln. I'm very tall. I'm 6’3” and thin. I was going to the C-SPAN reenactment of a Lincoln-Douglas debate, and my wife and I got dressed up in period clothing. She was dressed as Mary Todd Lincoln. When we were walking toward the event, there was a crowd of people around the actor portraying Stephen Douglas, getting his autograph. They took one look at me, and this huge crowd of people came across the street and wanted my autograph. So I had to say, "I'm not the person portraying Lincoln today." But there was one little boy who still wanted my autograph, which I thought was very sweet. I'm better off writing than acting, though.
What do you hope readers take away from your book? James McPherson, who is a wonderful Lincoln scholar, dedicated one of his books to his grandson and said, "May he too befriend Mr. Lincoln." So I hope that, from this book, young adults will be able to befriend Mr. Lincoln.
