"Birth of a Nation" and "History written in lightning," again

Wed Jun 22 22:42:32 UTC 2005

Now, the following is not meant to suggest that Woodrow Wilson did (or did
not) in fact pronounce of "The Birth of a Nation" that "[i]t is like writing
history in lightning.  My only regret is that it all so terribly true."

Instead, I'm presenting some evidence that the phrase "history written with
lightning" was twice linked to the film as early as December, 1915.  (For an
earlier look at Wilson's alleged assessment, see ADS-L posts, links to which
are provided below.)

The phrase happens to have been featured in a display ad that appeared in
*The Atlanta Constitution* on 12 December 1915 (Pg. 10),

-------------------------------

19,759 [in large font]

-- Persons saw history written with lightning at the Atlanta theater last
week.
-- They laughed, they shouted, and they gasped.
-- And through it all they shed hot, slippery tears.
-- Never before such scenes in an Atlanta playhouse; never so many damp
'kerchiefs.
-- ASK ANY OF THEM!
-- Those who have regained their voices will tell you that you'll regret it
to your dying day if you fail to witness

D.W. GRIFFITH'S GIGANTIC SPECTACLE
THE BIRTH OF A NATION

  [etc.]

-------------------------------

But what's more interesting, I think, is the use of "history written with
lightning" a few days later:  the announcement that follows rather strongly
hints at Wilson as a source for that particular descriptive phrase.  (Again,
this is *not* to say that Wilson ever publicly or privately deemed the film
"history written with lightning," but it's clear that whoever wrote what
follows wanted to make known, for whatever reason, that the President
regarded the film in this manner.)

-------------------------------

[From Anonymous, "At the Theaters," *The Atlanta Constitution*; 15 December
1915; Pg. 16.]

"The Birth of a Nation."
(At the Atlanta.)

"History written with lightning" is the description applied to "The Birth of
a Nation," now in its second week at the Atlanta theater, by a very eminent
man for whom a private exhibition was given in Washington some months ago.

The Griffith spectacle is history revived and shown in its making.  Some of
the greatest names that are written large upon the scroll of our country's
fame appear upon the program.  The players who enact the roles have studied
the minute descriptions of these men, both from photographs and intimate
life studies, and with this framework they make these wonderful characters
live again.  They pass before one's vision in a panorama of achievement.
The accomplishment is startling.  The entire action ranges over three
centuries.  It begins with the importation of the first African slave and it
ends with the settlement of that question in the freedom of the enslaved.
But before this end is reached the mightiest nation in the world passed
through the throes of internecine strife and the high lights of those
struggles are vividly brought out.  Cities are destroyed by fire.  Thousands
of horsemen dash in wild rides across blood-stained plains.  The human note
weaves in and through the entire thread and lends itself to the mightiest
story ever unfolded.

-------------------------------

As Barry noted in an earlier contribution, historian and Wilson biographer
Arthur Link had indicated that,

"The quotation first appears (without attribution) in all known sources and
literature in Milton MacKaye, 'The Birth of a Nation,' _Scribner's
Magazine_, CII (Nov. 1937), 69."

MacKaye, in fact, reports that,

"Woodrow Wilson saw *The Birth of a Nation* at a private showing in the
White House and paid the picture its finest tribute.  The President had
lived in the Carolinas as a child during Reconstruction days.  When the two
hours and forty minutes of camera reporting at last were over, he rose from
his chair and wiped his eyes.

'It is,' he said, 'like writing history with lightning.  And my only regret
is that it is all so terribly true.'"

[From MacKaye's "Birth of a Nation," pp. 40-46, 69.]

In the end, what's pretty evident is that the claim that "The Birth of a
Nation" was at least "history written with lightning" was starting to be
attached to Wilson within a year of his viewing the film (in February,
1915).

This leads me to wonder about the origin of the phrase itself.  Others have
pointed out that whoever first used "history written with lightning" with
regard to the film may have been influenced (directly or indirectly) by
Coleridge's supposed assessment that,

"To see [Edmund] Kean act is like reading Shakespeare by flashes of
lightning."

Moreover, it's been mentioned that,

"Francis Jeffrey . . . praised [Thomas] Carlyle's _The French Revolution_ by
saying that it was like 'reading history by flashes of lightning,' a phrase
which he borrowed from Coleridge's comment on Kean's acting."  [p. 491]

[From Charles R. Sanders's review of _Carlyle and Dickens_, by Michael
Goldberg.  The review appears in *Nineteenth-Century Fiction* 28(4):
490-492, 1973.]

Does anyone here know of citations for Coleridge's observation (perhaps from
_Table Talk_?) and, with regards to Carlyle's work, the use of "reading
history by flashes of lightning"?

-- Bonnie Taylor-Blake

Fred Shapiro's and Barry Popik's previous contributions on this topic,

1/21/05,
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501C&L=ads-l&P=R16156

1/22/05,
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501D&L=ads-l&P=R791

1/23/05,
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501D&L=ads-l&P=R2844

1/23/05,
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501D&L=ads-l&P=R3254

1/23/05,
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501D&L=ads-l&P=R3365