For over a century, historians gazed upon Abraham Lincoln as one of America’s most celebrated leaders—the man who guided the nation through civil war and issued the moving Emancipation Proclamation. But Lincoln’s personal life remained shrouded, hiding intimate friendships that challenge our view of him. Now, new filmmaker Shaun Peterson brings these whispers to light, introducing Lincoln as someone far more relatable.
Lover of Men tells the quiet story of four relationships central to Lincoln’s world. It explores his unlikely bond with Joshua Speed, unfolding like a friendship far beyond norms. We see Lincoln drawn to others too: young Elmer Ellsworth, a spark lighting Lincoln’s final challenging years, and David Derickson, a protector growing close in private hours.
Through letters and snapshots, Peterson pieces together a different picture of Lincoln, one of vulnerable connection. Experts analyze subtle cues from another era, finding clues where once few looked. Though friendship between men took diverse forms then, evidence hints at deeper caring in Lincoln’s eyes.
By focusing this etched legend as real flesh, Lover of Men makes history human. It challenges preconceptions and seeks Lincoln as a full, feeling man. Most intriguingly, it asks us to see beyond limiting labels of the past, recognizing how some leaders quietly resisted narrow lives prescribed to them. As diversity rises to light buried parts of ourselves, this film sparkles new understanding—and reminds that equality’s champions live in many untouched by biography’s gaze alone.
Deep Bonds
In New Salem in 1831, a young Abraham Lincoln stumbled upon lifelong friendship. Working beside Billy Green, the months blended as companions and confidants in close quarters too snug for mere colleagues. Their intimacy, sleeping nearly intertwined, hinted of caring beyond business—a trust not easily won or kept, even between the dearest of partners. Words left by Green focus keenly on Lincoln, as all true affection does, glimpsing a bond seldom recorded but no less real.
Four years living, working, and dreaming as family—more than most share in a lifetime. Speed took in Lincoln not from pity but seeing within his depths a soul to cherish. Letters between them breathe a passion lit by no other, Lincoln’s grief so raw it flayed his skin from his ribs. When aching for Speed, Lincoln wrote with a quill dipped in his breaking heart.
Their love poured freely as life and shaped a leader who led with compassion.
Bright and brave, Ellsworth blazed into Lincoln’s world and nestled into his guarding hands. In war, their days flew side by side, until grim fate ripped them apart and Ellsworth’s blood stained Virginia’s soil. Sorrow swallowed Lincoln deeper than for kin or child—a loss cleaving soul from soul.
Guardian by title, companion by choice. Nights together transcend duty, their intimacy granting solace when isolation pressed heaviest. Historical strokes etch their enduring kinship, a haven where Lincoln found rest as equal, not emblem.
Throughout, these bonds anchored Lincoln through private trials and triumphs we glimpse solely through remnants. Their impact stretches far beyond what words can hold, for the hearts of leaders also belong to love.
Unearthing Intimacy
Lover of Men pieced together Lincoln’s personal world through lovingly unearthed clues. Letters between Abe and Joshua reveal depths of feeling unfamiliar in other writings from the time. Reading between the careful lines crafted by an era of constraint, their words glow with quiet confession. Historians did well to dig through dusty tomes, disinterring flickers of lives once forced subterranean.
Experts lend insight with wisdom borne of walks in many lands. Some note how relationships then took forms now forgotten, hiding intimacy in plain sight. But evidence here shows ties too ardent to be dubbed mere habits of friendship. Attention to detail and texture of emotion hints at understandings lacking names yet real as any.
Other letters tell of partners newly sundered, with words of Lincoln’s suffering so raw you feel his fraying heartstrings. Diarists recall confidants finding more than duty in long nights’ comfort. Though some may yet resist rethinking legacies so legendary, the details compiled here craft too full a picture to deny.
What progress to recognize affection as complex then as now, and how we’ve grown from seeing society not as stiff and strict but nuanced, as lives ever are. This film digs with care where others feared to plant questions, bringing light and life to those once lost to narrow views. Its gifts are guides that, though from the past, pass light to help illuminate a future free for all to love in full color, not grayscale, and find embrace wherever hearts may roam.
Bringing the Past to Life
Lover of Men transported viewers back in time through thoughtfully crafted scenes. Reenactments placed us alongside Lincoln, feeling friendship’s glow and loss’s sting. At their finest, these moments breathed authenticity into yellowed pages and flickers of lives rarely glimpsed.
Yet some took on dramatic tones that distracted from history’s more nuanced terrain. While artfully acted, certain sections’ slowed pace felt overseasoned. But these blips troubled little, outnumbered by vignettes striking just the balance to spark wonder without sensationalism.
Deeper still, the film wove evidence into a cohesive narrative voyage. It guided us hand in hand down corridors dim to eyes grown accustomed to presuming all rooms were dark. Letters that long collected dust sparked to life as parts of a poetic whole we are privileged to cross. This story, unfolding gently yet full of heart, welcomed minds once closed and opened windows to lives intertwined with our own.
By the film’s end, strangers had become familiar—for who among us does not recognize, in those long gone, faces that mirror our own? In witnessing love so many fought to hide, we find reflections of our triumphs in their quiet resistances. And in their legacies’ layers unveiled, glimpse a future freer still through understanding’s keys, their pioneers pass down the halls of time.
Perspectives of the Past
Lover of Men placed Lincoln’s journey in a fuller light, drawing connections through history’s winding halls. It showed how queer voices inhabited hallowed niches long kept shadowed. Figures who bent society’s rigidity faced obscurity by the very nature that sparked their greatness.
Beginning in eras when diverse relationships attracted no labels, the film recounts a shifting social landscape. As centuries passed, institutions grasped at sexuality to cinch dominance. Religion and science lent themselves to new suppressions, leaving many lost to the aether alone.
By unveiling one who challenged prescriptions from within esteemed walls, the documentary sheds sun on parts of ourselves too often rendered invisible. Lincoln’s legacy looms ever larger in a reopened dimension, showing transcendence of a soul’s form that knows no boundaries. As struggle against prejudice persists today, recalling him gives fire to imagine what we all may do tomorrow unburdened by yesterday’s inhibitors of love.
In glimpsing multi-faceted lives through widened eyes, a richer future comes into focus. By freeing history’s inhabitants from narrow glosses, their reflections inspire visions of solidarity where once stood division. May this film’s revelations bring kindred realizations for all—that in lifting each other, our shared humanity lights the way.
Reconsidering the Record
Certainly, Lover of Men could have shaved its telling lines in spots. Historians reiterate central points past brevity at some junctures, losing momentum. Moreover, airing dissenting voices alongside academia’s analyses may have offered perspective some find provocative.
Yet tackling entrenched matters seldom proceeds simply or perfectly. Inherited narratives hold fast, particularly regarding renowned figures. And toppling icons demands nuance, watered down invites critique. The filmmakers walk a tense line, balancing revelation and respect.
In fairness, the evidence presented compels reflection on lives over-narrowed or forgotten. And dissent exists as much in the omission of data as in view. Ultimately, challenging preconceptions at all prompts re-envisioning history as lived—not as handed, sanitized.
Overall, Lover of Men stimulates meaningful reconsideration of Lincoln, sexuality’s complex past, and silences that shape who shows up in textbooks. Its examination, if imperfect, cultivates crucial empathy, inviting alternate angles rather than a final say. Such works nurture the growing future by the questions they pose, however dimly, over answers. Understanding expands not in endings but throughout the journey.
Looking Towards Tomorrow
This film, in lovingly laying Lincoln bare, gift wraps history’s shape anew. Through letters and seconds glimpsed, connections emerge rich as life itself, untwisting rigid notions to find queer souls nestled even in tradition’s tightest knots.
By unveiling realities faced but named with words not yet cut, Lover of Men bids erasure loose its clenching jaws. It demands we delve where pride and fear once scared off reflection, finding friends where once we saw but strangers. In widening vision, thus, greater understanding blooms.
For who among us dreams the heroes gracing classrooms hold surprises waiting in closets long since dusted shut? Yet in each unlikely luminary may shine reflections of our own lives. Therefore, this work stands as a mirror, showing identities matter, not merit, and each donated piece profits the whole mosaic of humanity.
Going forward, may Lincoln’s legacy light paths to solidarity. May his story, by challenging limits narrow minds impose, spur fuller embrace wherever hearts take root. For love knows no law but forgiveness. And understanding knows no border, save for open hands joining hands in kind. This is the future such revelations beckon us toward—one ever brighter for the glimpses of shared resilience in even the most hidden places of our past.
The Review
Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln
Lover of Men presents a thoughtful examination of Lincoln's intimate relationships that shatters preconceived notions of his identity. By reconstructing his untold history with care, respect, and nuance, the film sparks meaningful reflection on the fluid nature of sexuality, the erasure of queer figures, and the continuing need to challenge narrow perspectives of the past. While not without flaws, Peterson's documentary offers new insight into Lincoln that feels both illuminating and inspiring in its vision of hard-won freedoms. Ultimately, Lover of Men tells a story that resonates all the more today for whom it lifts from obscurity and all it seeks to educate on the lives of LGBTQ+ people, then as now.
PROS
- Thoughtfully examines Lincoln's relationships and complicates popular notions of his identity.
- Features insightful analysis from historians on cultural norms and sexuality in the 19th century
- Brings to light archival materials that add new dimensions to understanding Lincoln
- Stimulates meaningful reflection on queer erasure and the fluidity of historical figures' lives
- Makes an overall inspiring case for expanding recognition of diverse histories and identities.
CONS
- Some expert commentary feels repetitive.
- Lacks opposing viewpoints to address controversies
- Occasional dramatized reenactments feel overwrought.
