Abraham Lincoln—Emancipator, Terminator

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter hits theaters on June 22. The movie was directed by Timur Bekmambetov with a screenplay written by Seth Grahame-Smith.

If it's your tendency to roll your eyes at literary mashups such as Jane Slayre and Android Karenina, then I bet they rolled back into your head when what seems to be an affront to the greatest president in American history was published: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Mine certainly did, and I'm a fan of Lincoln and vampires. However, Seth Grahame-Smith, who also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, did extensive research into Lincoln and the politics and culture of Lincoln's time and he entertainingly meshes everything we know about Honest Abe, his family and peers, his road to the presidency, and the Civil War with the rise and fall of vampires in America. If you want to know why "CRO" was carved into a tree at the Roanoke settlement, how the Confederacy really won the First Battle of Bull Run, or simply why Lincoln favored that long, black coat, read the book and get educated in American history.