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Vidal, Gore. Lincoln. Vintage, paper, $16 (0-375-70876-6). In this conscientious dramatization of Lincoln's presidency, within the atmosphere of intrigue that permanently settled over Washington, D.C., during the Civil War, the [...]

Slotkin, Richard. Abe. 1999. Holt, $27.50 (0-8050-4123-0). Lincoln appears as the main character in a greatly detailed, obviously meticulously researched novel about his early life. Writing in a voice that [...]

Updike, John. Memories of the Ford Administration. Ballantine, paper, $12.95 (0-449-91211-6). Alfred Clayton, history teacher at a New England junior college, is answering a call put forth by a regional [...]

Skimin, Robert. Ulysses S. Grant. 1999. Herodias, paper, $16 (1-928-74601-2). This very effective fictional treatment of General Grant covers a wide range of periods in the man's life, including his [...]

Parry, Richard. That Fateful Lightning: A Novel of Ulysses S. Grant. 2000. Ballantine, $24.95 (0-345-42728-9). Writing in the omniscient third person, Parry offers a fictional revision of Grant's famous memoirs. [...]

Nevin, David. 1812. 1996. Forge, paper, $6.99 (0-812-52471-3). Nevin's latest historical novel of early America exhibits the best characteristics of the genre; it informs without oversimplifying the subject. Entertaining and [...]

Byrd, Max. Jefferson. 1993. Anchor, paper, $13.95 (0-553-37937-2). Grounded in fact, Byrd's fictional treatment of Thomas Jefferson provides a vivid portrait of one of this country's most intelligent and influential [...]

Martin, William. Citizen Washington. 1999. Warner, paper, $7.99 (0-446-60785-1). The premise of this compelling novel is that George Washington has just passed away, and young Christopher Draper is challenged by [...]

Byrd, Max. Grant. 2000. Bantam, $23.95 (0-553-09633-8). Following up his biographical novels about Jackson and Jefferson, Byrd here turns his attention to the eighteenth president. He concentrates on the last [...]

Briscoe, Connie. A Long Way from Home. 1999. Harper, paper, $6.99 (0-06-103021-X). Briscoe's third novel features an enslaved mother, daughter, and grandmother living on Montpelier plantation, the Virginia home of [...]

Preston, Diana. A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole. 1998. Houghton, $25 (0-395-93349-8); paper, $14 (0-618-00201-4). Before treks up Mount Everest, there were [...]

Yelverton, David. Antarctica Unveiled: Scott's First Expedition and the Quest for the Unknown Continent. 2000. Univ. of Colorado, $34.95 (0-87081-582-2). This meticulously researched book. recounts the first Antarctic expedition of [...]

Savours, Ann. The Search for the North West Passage. 1999. St. Martin's, $29.95 (0-312-22372-2); paper, $17.95 (0-312-23856-8). Savours is one of Britain's leading experts on the history of polar explorations. [...]

Barrett, Andrea. The Voyage of the Narwhal. 1998. Norton, $24.95 (0-393-04632-X); paper, $14 (0-393-31950-4). In this dynamic and insightful historical novel, the author has steeped herself in the past--in this [...]

Lopez, Barry, Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape. 1996. Bantam, $13.95 (0-553-34664-4). Readers of McGregor's Ice Child, who particularly enjoyed the story line about the female polar [...]

Humphreys, Josephine. Nowhere Else on Earth. Viking, $24.95 (0-670-89176-2). Humphreys' latest novel gracefully uses a very common device in historical fiction: presenting the plot in the form of a memoir. [...]

Richaud, Frederic. Gardener to the King. May 2001. 128p. Arcade, $19.95 (1-55970-583-3). Readers--and publishers--take note. Successful historical novels don't always have to be massive accumulations of detail. The sheer, elegant [...]

McGregor, Elizabeth. The Ice Child. May 2001. 384p. Dutton, $24.95 (0-525-94567-9). The resonance of history is hardly an unusual theme, but in McGregor's adept hands it becomes the stuff of [...]

Mallinson, Allan. Honorable Company. Bantam, $23.95 (0-553-11134-5). After distinguishing himself in the Battle. of Waterloo in Mallinson's debut novel, A Close Run Thing (1999), Matthew Hervey is promoted to captain, [...]

Fleischman, Lisa Huang. Dream of the Walled City. Pocket, $24.95 (0-671-04228-9). Jade Virtue Liang, born in 1890 into an upper-class family, lives through China's great political events, including the Boxer [...]

Fraser, George MacDonald. Flashman and the Tiger. Knopf, $25 (0-375-41024-4). Very few historical fiction writers possess the charm and authenticity that Fraser has exhibited in his series of novels featuring [...]

Vidal, Gore. The Golden Age. Doubleday, $27.50 (0-375-50075-0). The latest in Vidal's series of intelligently wrought historical novels tracing the rise and development of the American republic joins its predecessors [...]

Gloss, Molly. Wild Life. Simon & Schuster, $24 (0-684-86798-2). In her canny and spellbinding third novel, Gloss combines a passion for history with a taste for fantasy and a witting [...]

* Phillips, Max. The Artist's Wife. June 2001. 256p. Holt, $23 (0-8050-6670-5). The crucial test of a successful historical novel is whether the past is brought to vivid and viable [...]

Bell, Madison Smartt. Master of the Crossroads. Pantheon, $30 (0-375-42056-8). Bell began his historical trilogy about the slave revolt in Haiti with AU Souls' Rising (1995), and now, in an [...]

Kimes, Beverly Rae. The Classic Era. 2001. 720p. illus. index. Classic Car Club of America, 215 E. 80th St., New York, NY 10021, $99 (0-9627868-1-0). 629.222. This big, expensive book [...]

Mayle, Peter. French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew. May 2001. 256p. illus. Knopf, $24 (0-375-40590-9). 394.1. Former British ad man Mayle has made a career out of living [...]

Weintraub, Stanley. Edward the Caresser: The Playboy Prince Who Became Edward VII. Apr. 2001. 416p. index. Free Press, $28 (0-684-85318-3). 941.082. Edward VII was king of Great Britain from 1901 […]

Seward, Ingrid. The Queen and Di: The Untold Story. Apr. 2001. 272p. index. Arcade, $25.95 (1-55970-561-2). 941.085. Seward, editor of Majesty magazine and an esteemed royalty watcher, presents an understanding […]

Cornwell, Bernard. Sharpe's Trafalgar: Spain 1805. May 2001. 304p. HarperCollins, $25 (0-06-019425-1). Can this popular historical novelist possibly keep up the high standards of entertainment he has demonstrated so far […]

Yates, Richard. The Collected Stories of Richard Yates. May 2001. 496p. Holt, $28 (0-8050-6693-4). No public library catering to short story lovers should be without this career-encompassing collection of the [...]

Stroyar, J. N. The Children's War. June 2001. 1,168p. Pocket, $29.95 (0-7434-0739-3). No, there is no typo in the imprint. This first novel really is nearly 1,200 pages long. Is [...]

Black, Edwin. IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation. 2001. 519p. index. Crown, $27.50 (0-609-60799-5). The publisher has ordered a print run [...]

Shaara, Jeff. Rise to Rebellion. July 2001. 448p. Ballantine, $26.95 (0-345-42753-X). The son of Michael Shaara, author of the classic historical novel The Killer Angels (1974), seems to have inherited [...]

* McCullough, David. John Adams. June 2001. 736p. index. Simon & Schuster, $35 (0-684-81363-7). 973.4. John Adams and George H. W. Bush share a unique place in American history: both [...]

White, Edmund. The Flaneur: A Stroll through the Paradoxes of Paris. Mar. 2001. 214p. illus. Bloomsbury; dist. by St. Martin's, $16.95 (1-58234-135-4). 944. Esteemed novelist White's marvelous little book inaugurates [...]

Slave Narratives. Library of America; dist. by Viking. $40 (1-883011-76-0). This stirring volume contains some of the most passionate, potent slave narratives ever to be published. Together these 10 narratives [...]

Nesbitt, Peter T. and DuBols, Michelle. The Complete Jacob Lawrence. 2v. Univ. of Washington, $125 (0-295-97963-1). This magnificent two-volume study of the dynamic and deeply humanitarian work of one of [...]

Poitier, Sidney. The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography. Harper San Francisco, $26 (0-06-251607-8). One of the legendary American actors, Sidney Poitier has starred in more than 40 films [...]

SPOTLIGHT ON BLACK HISTORY * Black History--Rediscovered Gems Librarians will want to consider for purchase three paperback reprints from Dover Publications that are important in filling out a comprehensive black [...]

Walker, Rebecca. Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self. Riverhead, $23.95 (1-57322-169-4). When Alice Walker and Mel Leventhal married, their love was an illegal but idealistic leap of [...]

Murray, Charles Shaar. Boogie Man: The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century. St. Martin's, $27.95 (0-312-26563-8). Hooker became an overnight sensation in the 1980s after more [...]

Margolik, David. Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Call for Civil Rights. Running Press, $16.95 (0-7624-0677-1). Holiday first sang her signature song, 'Strange Fruit,' in 1939 in [...]

Kahn, Ashley. Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece. Da Capo, $23 (0-306-80986-9). In writing about the production of the classic jazz album Kind of Blue, Kahn [...]

Dickerson, Debra J. An American Story. Pantheon, $24 (0-375-42069-X). Dickerson tells of her disheartening discovery of the gaping holes in America's well-touted meritocracy. It would take her more than 20 [...]

Lewis, David Levering. W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-63. Holt/John Macrae, $35 (0-8050-2534-0). One of the most informative aspects of Lewis' highly [...]

Gilbert, Charlene and Eli, Quinn. Homecoming: The Story of African-American Farmers. Beacon, $35 (0-8070-0962). Gilbert, an independent filmmaker, began a personal documentary film of her family's farming roots and ended [...]

Savigneau, Josyane. Carson McCullers. Tr. by Joan E. Howard. Feb. 2001. 384p. index. Houghton, $30 (0-618-13098-5). 813. Originally published in France, where southern American literature traditionally has been well received, [...]

Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past (and Each Other). Ed. by Mark C. Carnes. Mar. 2001. 352p. Simon & Schuster, $25 (0-684-85765-0). Historical fiction, in the wake of [...]

Denton, Sally and Morris, Roger. The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America, 1947-2000. Mar. 2001. 416p. index. Knopf, $26.95 (0-375-40130-X). 979.3. The [...]