Abraham Lincoln's Last Photograph
by Christian Bunyan
Xlibris


"Abraham Lincoln said 'History is not history unless it is the truth.’"

Williamson is a keen amateur photographer and outdoorswoman. This small book contains snapshots of some of her most precious memories. She is equally comfortable in the saddle, on a beauty pageant stage, on the bench of a Steinway piano, or on a quest to discover the authenticity of an alleged post-mortem photograph of Abraham Lincoln. There is no official documentation of such a photograph’s existence, and many claim that it does not exist at all. But Williamson, unstoppable in her search for the truth, will not give up. She is equally unapologetic about her fundamentalist Christian beliefs and driven by the words of Christ: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” The pursuit becomes more personal when John, Williamson's World War II veteran grandfather, suffers an incapacitating stroke. The old crusader for truth cannot fight on, so Williamson must do it for him.

This brief, largely pictorial memoir is likely to appeal to a Christian audience. It was written to honor 88-year-old John Williamson in his fight following his stroke. Each of its seven chapters is titled after a book of the Bible. Most of the sparse text is devoted to captions addressing those photos that are not self-explanatory. Outdoor photographs cover an area from Illinois to Ontario, Canada, which the author enthusiastically calls “God's country.” There are also pictures of the cultured side of Williamson as she participates in beauty pageants and publicly plays classical piano. The disputed photo of Abraham Lincoln appears several times, and infrequent mention of the photograph in the title may cause confusion about the subject matter of the book. Nevertheless, the memoir shows Williamson's varied interests and well-rounded personality to perfection.

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