It's always exciting to find a new kind of book, and the first offering this month is new, at least to me. Mayhap 'twill be new to you, too.

Charles Brame, Honestly Abe: A Cartoon Exposé of Abraham Lincoln, with cartoons by Edgar B. Soller, ABE Press, Alta Loma, California, 1998, hardcover, 303 pages, $34.95 +$4 S&H order from ABE Press, PO Box 521–2, Alta Loma, CA 91701

Brother Charles Brame lives the life of Lincoln. He does programs around the country in the character and make-up of Abraham Lincoln, telling the story of the great man's life. The photographs are almost spooky. In a series of photos of Lincoln and Brother Brame, I can't tell them apart.

He has brought his vast store of knowledge to this fascinating book. It is, in essence, a biography in cartoons and notes. Hundreds of cartoons illustrate, usually with wit and humor, sometimes with pathos, the life and works of Abraham Lincoln. Many of them include a picture of George Washington on the wall. He seems to be commenting on the action of the scene.
This is painless learning at its best. I picked up an incredible amount of information about the life and times of Lincoln. The book is obviously written with love and passion, but with a sharp eye for history as well. The text, both inside and outside the cartoons, is liberally sprinkled with quotations from Lincoln's letters and speeches. This is a great book to give your kids or grandkids (read it yourself first) or anyone interested in Lincoln or in the history of 19th-Century America. My Lodge gives books each year to the school libraries in town, and I'm certainly going to recommend this one.

A Republic for the Ages: The United States Capitol and the Political Culture of the Early Republic edited by Donald R. Kennon, published for the United States Capitol Historical Society by the University Press of Virginia, ISBN 0813917956, hardcover, 583 pages, $55.00 + S&H over the Internet

This is a fascinating book about the architecture of the Capitol of the United States, how it developed, and why it is the way it is. That would be an interesting story in its own right, but what makes this especially interesting is Chapter Three, "Freemasonry and the Capitol."

The chapter consists of essays by three outstanding American historians. Len Travers, Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of New England History at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, contributed the essay "'In the Greatest Solemn Dignity' The Capitol Cornerstone and Ceremony in the Early Republic." It is easily the most complete discussion of the Masonic Capitol cornerstone ceremony I have read, and it is filled with things to inspire both pride and thought in a Mason.
Steven C. Bullock, Associate Professor of History at Worchester Polytechnic Institute and author of Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, which I have often and enthusiastically recommended in this column, provided this book's essay "'Sensible Signs' The Emblematic Education of Post-Revolutionary Freemasonry."

This fine essay is well illustrated with prints of tracing boards and other materials and is a pleasure to read (as Bullock's work always is), combining excellent information with excellent writing style.

James Stevens Curl, Emeritus Professor of Architectural History, School of Architecture at DeMontfort University in England and author of The Art and Architecture of Freemasonry (which I hope is in your library) wrote "The Capitol in Washington D.C. and Its Freemasonic Connections." Heavily illustrated with architectural drawings, it is a first-rate exposition of Masonic architecture and the effect it had on American culture.

If you get the feeling I like this book, you're right.

These are lively essays, and written by men who have carefully sifted fact from fiction. You will see a portion of the story of Freemasonry and American history most of us know, if at all, only by myth. The facts are even better. Again, I'd recommend this book for every Lodge library, and it's a good one to give to your public library as well.

Jim Tresner is Director of the Masonic Leadership Institute and Editor of The Oklahoma Mason. A frequent contributor to the Scottish Rite Journal and its book review editor, Illustrious Brother Tresner is also a volunteer writer for The Oklahoma Scottish Rite Mason and a video script consultant for the National Masonic Renewal Committee. He is the Director of the Thirty-third Degree Conferral Team and Director of Work at the Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple in Guthrie, Oklahoma, as well as a life member of the Scottish Rite Research Society, author of the popular anecdotal biography Albert Pike, The Man Beyond the Monument, and a member of the steering committee of the Masonic Information Center. Ill. Tresner was awarded the Grand Cross, the Scottish Rite's highest honor, during the Supreme Council's October 1997 Biennial Session.