Historian's book made into movie by Steven Spielberg - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

The last book written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin was about the political life of Abraham Lincoln. It's been made into a movie by Steven Spielberg.

Called "Lincoln", the movie re-tells the last four months of Lincoln's life, and his fight to abolish slavery, and end the Civil War. Goodwin's book covers much more of the former president's life, but had to be trimmed down for the movie.

In the end, Goodwin was pleased that Spielberg, and screenwriter Tony Kushner, chose to focus on abolition amid the Civil War. Doris Kearns Goodwin, Presidential Historian says, "In it, you see all the qualities of Lincoln that stretch in this fat book. His humor, his sense of conviction, his political skill. It's really about how he moves Congress to do something that many of those people don't want them to do."

Spielberg approached Goodwin about her book in 2000... before the book was finished. He "optioned" it on the spot.

Wondering what's next from Goodwin? A book about the broken friendship between Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. They were great friends in their 30's, and then they end up running against eachother for president in 1912.