Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He is still fondly remembered as one of the greatest president in American history. But he died in 1865. Jules Verne didn’t publish his first “Roman de la Science” (novel of science until 1864. What does Lincoln have to do with Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror? More than you’d expect. Lincoln is known to have been an avid reader and probably had access to Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and poetry.

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, in Kentucky. He died April 16, 1865 in Washington, DC. From 1892 to 1968, his birthday was celebrated as a holiday in many parts of the country. In 1968 the third Monday of February was designated Presidents’ Day to replace Washington’s Birthday as a national holiday, and to combine Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12) with George Washington’s birthday (February 22) and also instead of having two holidays in the shortest month of the year, having one three-day-weekend

Lincoln in SF/F/H

Abraham Lincoln as a character in history is so well known and so beloved that it is inevitable that he would find his way into the popular culture. Lincoln has appeared in more movies than any other historical figure, except for Sherlock Holmes, and Holmes was fictional to start with. 

In 1961, Abraham Lincoln was a character in the Twilight Zone episode “The Passersby,” where his ghost was played by Austin Green. The Civil War widow who met him was played by Joanne Linville, who would go on to guest star on Star Trek seven years later as the Romulan Commander in “The Enterprise Incident.”

Lincoln’s Star Trek connection goes deeper. Lincoln, or at least someone/something that appeared to be Lincoln was a character in the 1969 Star Trek episode “The Savage Curtain,” played by Lee Bergere.

Probably the best-known appearance of Abraham Lincoln in our favorite genre is Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (2012), a movie where Benjamin Walker Davis stars as a vampire hunter who eventually becomes president. In the movie, most American vampires are slaveowners. Lincoln is warned that abolishing the evil of slavery would mean the vampires would then be out of control, as they would feed on everybody, not just on their own slaves.

In the comicbook series Invincible, Lincoln appears as one of the alter-egos of a character called Immortal, who is—you guessed it—immortal.

Abraham Lincoln in Books

Seth Grahame-Smith wrote the novel Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, which was the basis for the movie of the same name. The book was published in 2010. Grahame-Smith also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. He wrote How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills, “a tongue-in-cheek guide to help readers escape situations most often shown in horror films.”

Jugo Award winner Harry Turtledove, the Master of Alternate History, has used Abraham Lincoln as a character in some of his alternative history novels, especially in How Few Remain, where he proposes a version of Lincoln as a student of Karl Marx’s writings. It’s not impossible Lincoln, who had a respect for honest labor, might have read and been influenced by Marx, As with Poe, the dates certainly made it plausible.

Lincoln in Gaming

In the RPG (role-playing game) Bureau Thirteen, the federal agency designed to fight supernatural foes, President Lincoln himself founded Bureau 13. Certainly, Lincoln could be an NPC (non-player character) in any time travel or steampunk game.

He made an appearance in the computer game version of Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian, as voiced by Jim Cummings (the same guy who gives us the voice of Winnie the Pooh). He also, for some reason, makes an appearance in the game Fight Club for the Playstation 2.

He also appears in the video game adaptations of both LEGO movies, a number of releases in Sid Meier’s Civilization series, Scribblenauts, half a dozen or so Sam & Max titles. and a couple dozen other titles.

Lincoln and Disney

Just as the fictional James T. Kirk regarded Abraham Lincoln as a personal hero, so did the very real Walter E. Disney. For years, one of the attractions at Disneyland’s Main Street, USA was great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, where an audio-animatronic of Lincoln delivered a stirring speech made up of quotations from various speeches he made in his lifetime from various speeches he made in his lifetime, including the heartbreaking Civil War song “Two Brothers” also known as “All On a Beautiful Morning.”

The attraction began its mechanical life at the 1964 World”s Fair. It eventually inspired the Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. By 21st century standards, the audio-animatronic Lincoln is a very primitive robot. But it led to Pirates of the Carribbean and It’s a Small World.

If you’ve been to Disneyland, this will jog your memory. If you haven’t been lucky enough to go to Disneyland yourself, watch the video below. Every American should see Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln at least once. I invite our international fans to watch, too, if only to see what America used to be, and what we hope to be again. A statue of Abraham Lincoln stands in London’s Parliament Square in Canning Green.

Happy Lincoln’s Birthday. He would’ve been 216 years old on Wednesday, February, 12, 2025. We could sure use a man with his kind of integrity again. Perhaps, with him as inspiration, someone will rise to the call.