In a May 31 column/review published in The American Conservative, Bill Kauffman uses Updike’s Buchanan Dying—“Updike’s imaginatively empathetic play about the despised 15th president”—in lengthy comparison to make a point about the movie Copperhead, a Civil War drama that opens in theaters on June 28, 2013.

Citing a disparaging quote from Henry James about the historical novel, Kauffman concludes that both the new movie and Updike’s old, only play refute James’ assertion that “the real thing is almost impossible to do.”