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 Abraham Lincoln and his books 
 
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 3 1924 032 768 651 
 
Cornell University 
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 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032768651 
 
<£> 77,'' Brick Row Pnnf and Book Shop, Jnc 
 
 New Haven. ConJi 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 AND 
 
 HIS BOOKS 
 
 BY 
 WILLIAM E. BARTON 
 
 Author of 
 
 "The Soul of Abraham Lincoln," 
 
 "The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln " etc. 
 
 With Selections 
 
 from the Wiritings of Lincoln 
 
 and a Bibliography of Books inPrint 
 
 Relating to Abraham Lincoln 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 Published by the Book Section of 
 MARSHALL FIELD & COMPANY 
 
 1920 
 
 \Co 
 
Copyright 1920 
 Marshall Field & Company 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 ABBAHAM LINCOLN AND HIS BOOKS 
 
 I. The Books That Made Lincoln 7 
 
 II. The Books That Lincoln Made 20 
 
 m. Books About Lincoln .27 
 
 PAST II 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS 
 
 OP LINCOLN 
 
 Notes eoh a Law Lectuee 51 
 
 Concerning Free and Slave Labor 54 
 
 The House Divided Against Itself 56 
 
 His Last Words at Spbingfibld 57 
 
 The Emancipation Proclamation . . 58 
 
 The Getttsbueg Address ... 61 
 
 Address on His Ee-Election 62 
 
 The Second Inaugural Address 64 
 
 Letter to the Parents of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth . 67 
 
 Letter to Mrs. Bixbt 69 
 
 Letter to His Dying Father 70 
 
 PART III 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS IN PRINT 
 
 RELATING TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Biographies and Reminiscences 7S 
 
 Lincoln's Works 84 
 
 Lincoln's Stories and Epigrams 86 
 
 Religion of Lincoln ... 88 
 
 Lectures, Addresses and Miscellaneous 90 
 
 Fiction 9* 
 
 Poetry and Drama ... 98 
 
 Juvenile 100 
 
 Tributes to Lincoln • ■ 104 
 
 Lincoln's Birthday Exercises, Etc 104 
 
 School Text Books 106 
 
PART I 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND 
 HIS BOOKS 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND HIS BOOKS 
 
 1. The Books that Made Lincoln 
 
 The boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln had 
 a library of six books, — ^the Bible, Pilgrim's 
 Progress, ^Esop's Fables, Robinson Crusoe, 
 Weems' Life of Washington, and a History of 
 the United States. It was an almost ideal 
 collection of books for a young American. We 
 can trace the influence of these six books upon 
 his subsequent career. He could have found 
 no nobler examples of fine and pure literary 
 style than were available to him in King James' 
 version of the Bible, in John Bunyan's immortal 
 allegory and in De Foe's masterpiece. The 
 fables of ^Esop gave color to his inherent love 
 of illustrative argument. Weems' Life of Wash- 
 ington, now commonly referred to in terms of 
 mirth, contained nothing that seemed to him 
 unworthy of his country's father, even the 
 cherry-tree story having its justification in its 
 own generation and those that immediately 
 
8 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 followed in the reverence which it inculcated 
 for truth. We do not know what author taught 
 to Abraham Lincoln the history of his own 
 country. The book was probably one of no 
 great literary merit, but it related the story of 
 Christopher Columbus, the romance of coloniz- 
 ation, the struggles which led to liberty, and 
 the notable events in the life of the nation down 
 to the time, perhaps, of the inauguration of 
 President James Monroe. 
 
 In school, he had become familiar with Dill- 
 worth's Speller, and then with that of Noah 
 Webster, the latter being more than a spelling- 
 book, and serving many pupils in backwoods 
 schools until the pupil was able to read in the 
 Bible. The schools which he attended, three 
 in Kentucky and two in Indiana, gave to him 
 a total of less than twelve months of schooling. 
 Lincoln cannot be classed with George Bernard 
 Shaw, among those whose education was inter- 
 rupted by their schooling. The backwoods 
 schools which Lincoln attended were "blab- 
 schools" in which the pupils studied their lessons 
 aloud, the teacher moving among them and 
 encouraging with a switch those who did not 
 give this continuous audible evidence that they 
 were at work. 
 
The Books that Made Lincoln [ 9 
 
 Of the use of the Bible as a text-book, the 
 writer has personal knowledge; but one of Mr. 
 Lincoln's stories discloses Lincoln's own memory 
 of it. The incident comes, to us from former Vice- 
 President Adlai E. Stevenson, to whom it was 
 related by Senator Henderson of Missouri. 
 Senator Henderson called at the White House 
 one day some months before the issue of the 
 Emancipation Proclamation. The President 
 was in one of his moods of deepest depression. 
 He told Senator Henderson that he was greatly 
 troubled by the question of the freedom of the 
 slaves, and was under great pressure from the 
 radical proponents of abolition, especially 
 Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson and Thaddeus 
 Stevens. Henderson, being from a border state, 
 was concerned for the efifect of such a proclama- 
 tion upon the loyal people of those states, some 
 of whom were slave-holders. 
 
 "Sumner and Stevens and Wilson simply 
 haunt me," declared Mr. Lincoln. "They haunt 
 me with their importunities for a proclamation 
 of emancipation. Wherever I go, and whatever 
 way I turn, they are on my trail. And still in 
 my heart I have the deep conviction that the 
 hour has not yet come." 
 
 Senator Henderson said that as Lincoln said 
 
10 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 this he walked to the window, and looked out 
 in silence upon Pennsylvania Avenue, his tall 
 figure silhouetted against the window pane, his 
 whole pose, and every line of the profile of his 
 gracious face, expressive of unutterable sadness. 
 Suddenly his lips began to twich into a smile, 
 and his somber eyes lighted up with mirth. 
 
 "The only schooling I ever had, Henderson," 
 he said, "was in a log schoolhouse when reading 
 books and grammars were unknown. All our 
 reading was done from the Scriptures, and we 
 stood up in a long line and read in turn from the 
 Bible. Our lesson one day was the story of the 
 faithful Israelites who were thrown into the fiery 
 furnace and delivered by the hand of the Lord 
 without so much as the smell of fire upon 
 their garments. It fell to one little fellow to 
 read the verse in which occurred, for the first 
 time, the names of Shadrach, Meshach, and 
 Abed-nego. 
 
 Little Bud stumbled on Shadrach, floundered on 
 Meshach, and went all to pieces on Abed-nego. 
 Instantly the hand of the master dealt him a 
 cuflF on the side of the head and left him, wailing 
 and blubbering, as the next boy in line took up 
 the reading. But before the girl at the end of 
 the line had done reading, he had subsided into 
 
The Books that Made Lincoln [ 11 
 
 sniffles, and finally became quiet. His blunder 
 and disgrace were forgotten by the class imtil 
 his turn was approaching to read again. Then, 
 like a thunder-clap out of a clear sky, he set up a 
 wail that alarmed the master, who with rather 
 unusual gentleness inquired, "What's the matter 
 now.''" 
 
 The little boy pointed with shaking finger to 
 the verge which in a few moments he would be 
 expected to read, and to the three proper names 
 which it contained, — 
 
 "Look, marster," he cried, "there comes them 
 same three fellers again !" 
 
 Lincoln's face lighted up with a smile as he 
 told this story, and he beckoned Senator 
 Henderson to his side, and silently pointed his 
 finger at three men at that moment crossing 
 from Pennsylvania Avenue over the White 
 House lawn to the door of the Executive man- 
 sion. They were Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson 
 and Thaddeus Stevens. 
 
 This is a good story, and well authenticated. 
 It has its present value for us in the record it 
 contains of the use of the Bible as a book for 
 class instruction in the schools which Lincoln 
 attended. 
 
 It seems probable, however, that near the 
 
12 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 end of his schooling he used Lindley Murray's 
 "English Reader," with its choice collection of 
 prose and verse; for he told Herndon that he 
 considered that volume the best schoolbook 
 ever put into the hands of American youth. 
 That opinion was justified. It was a great 
 book. 
 
 At New Salem, Lincoln read law, and had his 
 introduction to natural history, and to scientific 
 subjects. Herndon relates that he read Rollin's 
 Ancient History and Gibbon's Rome, but that 
 he did not greatly enjoy history. I have 
 several volumes once owned by him, and bearing 
 the firm name of Lincoln and Herndon in his 
 writing, one of them being "Ancient and Modern 
 History" by J. E. Worcester. 
 
 Biography interested him, but he did not like 
 to have men over-praised. In 1856 Herndon 
 purchased a "Life of Burke." It may have been 
 Sir James Prior's "Life," the fifth edition of 
 which had just been published by Bohn; but 
 Prof. Daniel Kilham Dodge, whose booklet on 
 the evolution of Lincoln's literary style is of 
 great value, opines that it was P. Burke's 
 "Life of Burke," which was published in 1851, 
 and which the Dictionary of National Biog- 
 raphy characterizes as "utterly valueless." 
 
The Books that Made Lincoln [ 13 
 
 Lincoln so regarded it. Herndon tells of it 
 thus: 
 
 "In 1856 I purchased in New York a Life of 
 Edmund Burke. I have forgotten who the 
 author was. One morning Lincoln came into 
 the office, and, seeing the book in my hands, 
 enquired what I was reading. Taking it in his 
 hands, he threw himself down on the office sofa, 
 and hastily ran over its pages, reading a little 
 here and there. At last he closed and threw it 
 on the table with the exclamation, 'No, I've read 
 enough of it. It's like all the others. Biog- 
 raphies as generally written are not only mis- 
 leading, but false. The author of this Life of 
 Burke makes a wonderful hero of his subject. 
 He magnifies his perfections, if he had any, and 
 suppresses his imperfections. He is so faithful 
 in his zeal and so lavish in praise of his every act 
 that one is almost driven to believe that Burke 
 never made a mistake or a failure in his life. 
 History is not history unless it is the truth." 
 
 It would appear that Lincoln was not inter- 
 ested in biography which was indiscriminate 
 eulogy; but that he cared to read the lives of 
 eminent men is certain. .In his boyhood he 
 appears to have read Weems' Life of Marion as 
 well as that of Washington, and also to have 
 
14 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 read Franklin's Autobiography, and later the 
 life of Henry Clay. He did not, however, read 
 in his early years that Who's Who of classic 
 heroes, Plutarch's Lives. We are certain of 
 this, because when John Locke Scripps wrote 
 the first biography of Lincoln, he stated that 
 this was among the books which Lincoln had 
 read. Lincoln told him that this statement was 
 not true when it was written, but that it was 
 true before the book was published; for he pro- 
 cured Plutarch and read his great work in order 
 that Mr. Scripps' book might be true in every 
 detail. 
 
 As to the list of books which Lincoln read 
 while stUl a lad in Indiana, the statement which 
 he made to Leonard Swett is probably no great 
 exaggeration, that he borrowed and read every 
 book he could learn about within a circuit of 
 fifty miles. Among those borrowed volumes 
 was a copy of the Revised Statutes of Indiana, 
 the beginning of his reading of law. 
 
 As for fiction, he read almost none of it. A 
 certain Mrs. Lee Hentz had a passing vogue as a 
 writer of fiction when he was a young man, and 
 he lilced her stories. He did not care for long 
 stories; he preferred those that could be read 
 easily at a sitting. He once tried to read 
 
The Books that Made Lincoln [ 15 
 
 Ivanhoe, but did not finish it; and he never read 
 either Dickens or Bnlwer. He said to Frank B. 
 Carpenter, "It may seem strange to say, but 
 I never read an entire novel in my life." How- 
 ever, he dipped into several of them, and had 
 some general knowledge of some of the chief 
 authors of English fiction. 
 
 While he was at New Salem, he read poetry, and 
 liked it. There he learned to admire Shakespeare 
 and Byron and Burns. He could not sing, but 
 he had an ear for rhythm, and more than once 
 essayed to write in verse. In 1844 he returned 
 to Indiana, which he had not revisited since his 
 boyhood, and made several speeches in favor of 
 Henry Clay. More than a year later, on April 18, 
 1846, he sent to a friend some lines which that 
 visit evoked, beginning: • 
 
 "My childhood's home I see again. 
 
 And sadden with the view; 
 And still, as memory crowds my brain, 
 
 There's pleasure in it, too." 
 
 There were ten stanzas, to which he added, a 
 few months later, eleven others, suggested by 
 the same visit, and by the pathetic sight of a boy- 
 hood friend who had lost his mind and become 
 violently insane. These twenty-one stanzas are 
 
16 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 preserved. They have no great literary merit, 
 but show that he had a good sense of rhythm, 
 and some poetic gift of imagery. He had read 
 poetry enough to know what poetry was or 
 should be. His taste in poetry, however, never 
 was exalted. He preferred poems whose meter 
 made it easy to remember them, and he had a 
 remarkably good memory; and sad poems were 
 more to his liking than those that were gay. 
 In his boyhood he wrote backwoods jingles, and 
 sang in mournful cadence "How tedious and 
 tasteless the hours." In early manhood he 
 committed to memory and retained through life 
 as his favorite poem that mournful homily, 
 "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be 
 proud?" 
 
 The dactylic meter belongs to subjects light 
 and gay, though classic poetry used it in the 
 heroic hexameter; but the backwoods found 
 means of compelling it to go sadly, as in the 
 hymn and poem of which we are speaking, as 
 if to constrain the waltz to clothe itself in a 
 shroud. Lincoln liked poems which moved 
 mournfully in triple time. Of contemporary 
 poets he knew something of Longfellow and 
 Whittier, though he is not known to have quoted 
 the latter, and he greatly admired "The Last 
 
The Boohs that Made Lincoln [ 17 
 
 Leaf" by Oliver Wendell Holmes. There were 
 no lines which he admired more than, — 
 
 "The mossy marbles rest 
 
 On the Kps that he has pressed, 
 
 In their bloom; 
 And the names he loved to hear 
 Have been carved for many a year 
 
 On the tomb." 
 
 Lincoln did not continue to be a voracious 
 reader. Herndon said of him that he read less 
 and thought more than any other man in public 
 life in his generation. But he accumulated a 
 fairly good library, partly by purchase and more 
 by natiu-al accretion, and he had access to 
 the exceptionally good library of his partner, 
 Herndon. 
 
 About 1844 Lincoln read "Vestiges of the 
 Natural History of Creation," published anony- 
 mously, but now known to have been written 
 by Robert Chambers, of the noted Scotch pub- 
 lishing house. It introduced him to geology, 
 increased his knowledge of astronomy, taught 
 hiTin the rudiments of comparative anatomy and 
 embryology, and gave him the basis of his 
 belief in "miracles under law," or a system of 
 creation in essential accord with what we now 
 call evolution. 
 
18 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 In 1850, he read with profound appreciation a 
 book on the evidences of Christianity, entitled 
 "The Christian's Defense," and it wrought great 
 changes in his theory of the relation of the 
 human to the Divine. As late as 1859 he pro- 
 cured and read Paley's Natural Theology. In 
 another place I have set forth the significance of 
 these books for him. In this same period also 
 he read William EUery Channing's sermons in 
 part, and some of the writings of Theodore 
 Parker; which, without converting him wholly 
 to the theories of those men, were influential in 
 widening his intellectual and spiritual horizon.* 
 
 Among Lincoln's books were several works of 
 humor. He enjoyed Artemus Ward. He read 
 Petroleum V. Nasby with great enjoyment. 
 He owned and diligently perused "Joe Miller's 
 Joke Book," and remembered the stories which 
 it contained. A copy of this volume was found 
 in the drawer of his desk after his death, in 
 close juxtaposition with important state papers. 
 
 But it deserves to be remembered that while 
 Lincoln told stories in personal argimient and 
 in jury trials, he almost never told a story in one 
 of his formal addresses. His published speeches 
 
 •See "The Soul of Abraham Lincoln," by William E. Barton; 
 chapters XUI. XIV. XV. 
 
The Books that Made Lincoln [ 19 
 
 may be searched from end to end with very 
 meager gleanings in the field of narrative. It is 
 surprising to discover how few stories are to be 
 obtained from Lincoln's authentic writings and 
 how many from reminiscences of conversations 
 with him. He knew well in what forms of dis- 
 course his homely illustrations would add weight 
 to his argument, and when, in the interests of 
 good taste or more solid and cogent reasoning 
 it was better to omit them. 
 
II. The Books That Lincoln Made 
 
 So much for the books which helped to make 
 Lincoln; let us consider now the books which 
 Lincoln helped to make. 
 
 Lincoln never wrote a book. J. McCann 
 Davis reproduced in fac-simile the one book 
 that might be called Lincoln's, being a series 
 of newspaper clippings from his speeches on 
 slavery, with annotations in his handwriting, 
 arranged in a small blank book as an exposition 
 of his authorized utterances on that subject. 
 He edited from newspaper reports for publica- 
 tion in book form his part in the Lincoln- 
 Douglas debates. I have seen the original 
 sheets which he used, and it is notable that he 
 did not change phraseology that he might 
 possibly have wished to have modified slightlyj 
 and that he quite generally cut out the words 
 "Laughter" and "Applause" with which the 
 favorable press reports sprinkled the record of 
 his addresses. 
 
 Lincoln liked to see his own addresses in 
 print. Some of his biographers, notably Lamon, 
 
 20 
 
The Books that Lincoln Made [ 21 
 
 comment on this fact with apparent desire to 
 criticize him for it. But his editing of his 
 addresses for publication, as it has fallen under 
 the eye of the present writer, is strikingly- 
 modest. 
 
 Altogether the published addresses, state 
 papers and correspondence of Lincoln make 
 several thick volumes, two in one edition, eight 
 in another and twelve in another. Beside 
 these are one or two supplementary volumes of 
 his otherwise uncollected writings. He was, 
 therefore, an author of considerable fecundity. 
 He was also a writer whose literary style under- 
 went a remarkable and most interesting evolu- 
 tion. The little book of Prof. Dodge has 
 already been referred to; a valuable little 
 volume by Prof. Luther E. Robinson as "Lin- 
 coln as a Man of Letters" may also be cited. 
 
 Books compiled frora the writings of Lincoln 
 began to appear almost as soon as he was dead. 
 The first of these began to be compiled within a 
 few days after the assassination. The American 
 News Company received on April 18, 1865, a 
 letter saying: 
 
 "You have it in yoiu* power to erect a monu- 
 ment of its own kind to the memory of the 
 President. Collect and publish, in the speediest 
 
22 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 possible manner, the inaugural and other ad- 
 dresses of Abraham Lincoln, his proclamations, 
 messages and public letters, indeed all that he 
 has written as President, and you will con- 
 tribute to the mournful celebrations of the 
 American people your share of lasting value, 
 and of far more impressive eloquence than the 
 most fervent orator could utter." 
 
 The publishers acted instantly on the sug- 
 gestion, and prepared a volume of 297 pages, 
 which was entitled "The Martyr's Monument." 
 It was followed a few weeks or months later by 
 a smaller volume of selections, entitled "Presi- 
 dent Lincoln Self -Portrayed" compUed by John 
 Malcolm Ludlow, the proceeds of which were 
 used for the freedmen, and this by a well selected 
 group of Lincoln's writings entitled "The Presi- 
 dent's Words." The title page bears no name 
 of compiler, but it is known that this selection 
 was made and edited by Edward Everett Hale. 
 
 These were followed by larger and yet larger 
 collections of the writings of Lincoln until 
 Nicolay and Hay published their supposedly 
 exhaustive work, and other diligent compilers 
 added other and valuable sets of the "complete" 
 writings of Lincoln. All "complete" sets, how- 
 ever, have need to be supplemented. 
 
The Books that Lincoln Made [ 23 
 
 It must not be supposed that at the time of 
 Lmcoln's death the nation held any such view 
 of the beauty of Lincoln's writings as now ob- 
 tains. His wonderfully lucid and pure style 
 had only begun to impress the mind of the read- 
 ing public. Even the Gettysburg address came 
 somewhat slowly to recognition. At the time 
 many were disappointed in it. At least one 
 New York paper spoke slightingly of it. The 
 "Patriot and Union" of Harrisburg spoke what 
 many felt: — 
 
 "The President succeeded on this occasion 
 because he acted without sense and without 
 constraint in a panorama that was gotten up 
 more for the benefit of the party than for the 
 glory of the nation and the honor of the dead. 
 We pass over the silly remarks of the President; 
 for the credit of the nation we are willing that 
 the veil of oblivion shall de dropped over them 
 and that they ^shall no more be repeated or 
 thought of." 
 
 They have been repeated, however, and will 
 be repeated and thought of, as long as the 
 English language endures. 
 
 Quotations such as this remind us that in the 
 thought of very many, including some members 
 of the committee of invitation, the President 
 
24 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 intruded himself upon an occasion where he was 
 unwelcome, and where his appearance was in 
 bad taste, using the occasion with a view to its 
 effect upon the approaching political conven- 
 tion. It was a cruel and unjust judgment, but it 
 colored the impression which not a few editors 
 had when they commented upon Lincoln's im- 
 mortal address at Gettysburg. To them it was 
 not a masterpiece in language, in oratory and in 
 nobility of sentiment, but a commonplace and 
 vapid performance intended to advertise the 
 fact that Abraham Lincoln was a candidate for 
 reelection. 
 
 Perhaps we should count among the books 
 which Lincoln helped to make, the campaign 
 attacks upon him. . They were numerous, and 
 are at this day among the most interesting items 
 for collectors. 
 
 Perhaps the mdfet dignified and logical of these 
 documents were those issued by "The Society 
 for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge." This 
 was organized at Delmonico's on February 6, 
 1864, and was composed of the silk-stockinged 
 opponents of Lincoln. The President was Prof. 
 Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, 
 and among its members were many able 
 and prominent men. "The fanatic is on the 
 
The Books that Lincoln Made [ 25 
 
 throne," said Prof. Morse in his speech of 
 acceptance of the presidency, and he inveighed 
 against the ursurpation of the throne, or perhaps 
 we should say the conversion of the presidential 
 chair into a throne; and he was nowhere more 
 emphatic than in denoimcing those ministers of 
 the gospel who praised Lincoln from the pulpit, 
 and in his rejoicing that there stiQ were in the 
 pulpit of the North some who had not bowed 
 the knee to Baal. 
 
 The McClellan Club of Philadelphia issued 
 some documents, though not as many as Prof. 
 Morse's society, attempting to show that the 
 American people were "being reduced to mere 
 serfs to a despot tyrant." 
 
 A New York publishing house issued a well 
 written pamphlet showing that Mr. Lincoln was 
 engaged with the Republican party in "a con- 
 spiracy to destroy the American Union" and 
 erect a monarchy. 
 
 These booklets lie before me as I write, and 
 also others entitled "Shall America Be Ruled by 
 a Monarch or by the People"? "The United 
 States Converted Into a Military Despotism," 
 "Grounds for the Impeachment of the Presi- 
 dent," "The Trial of Abraham Lincoln by the 
 Great Statesmen of the Republic," a trial which 
 
26 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Boohs 
 
 resulted, in the booklet, in his condemnation for 
 despotism and cruelty and violation of the 
 Constitution, demanding his impeachment, and 
 consigning him to eternal disgrace. 
 
 We have no present occasion to dwell upon 
 these documents. America has never had a 
 great man in public life who was not shamefully 
 abused while he was living and almost as shame- 
 fully eulogized after he was dead. But our 
 present interest is not political or biographical, 
 but bibliographical; and we mention these mat- 
 ters as things of interest to the book lover. 
 They add very interesting items to the collection 
 of any man who is inclined to seek for them; and 
 they are not without value to those, if there be 
 such among us, who would learn to value our 
 great men while they still are living. 
 
III. Books About Lincoln 
 
 It is when we come to books about Lincobi 
 that our subject overflows all its banks, and 
 inundates the lands adjacent to our theme. 
 This man who read few books and wrote none 
 inspired more volumes than any other American; 
 more than any other character in modern times. 
 Not even Napoleon has a richer bibliography. 
 
 The first books about Abraham Lincoln ap- 
 peared in 1860, very shortly after his nomina- 
 tion. Lincoln was nominated May 18, 1860; 
 Scripps' Life of Lincoln was published on June 3. 
 For this little book, Lincoln himself fm-nished 
 the autobiographical sketch. A year before he 
 had prepared for Jesse W. Fell of Bloomington, 
 in the third person, a short biographical outline, 
 written on three pages of note paper. It has 
 been reproduced in fac-simile by the daughters 
 of Mr. Fell, who live at Normal, and it shows 
 Lincoln's first effort to put the events of his 
 life into a form that could be read, and possibly 
 printed in a newspaper sketch. 
 
 When in 1860 Mr. Scripps visited him, just 
 
 27 
 
28 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 after the Chicago convention, Mr. Lincoln depre- 
 cated any attempt to write anything so pre- 
 tentious as a campaign biography, saying that 
 neither Scripps nor any other man could make 
 anything out of Lincoln's life except what was 
 contained in a single line of Gray's Elegy: — 
 "The short and simple annals of the poor." 
 But he prepared a skietch, rather longer than 
 that which he had written for Fell, and out of 
 it, with such added material as he coiUd com- 
 mand, Scripps made a pamphlet of thirty-two 
 double-column octavo pages. The little book- 
 let sold for four cents, or at twenty doUars a 
 thousand, and it sold by the thousand. Perfect 
 copies are now difficult to obtain, and have been 
 sold at a hundred dollars or more. This book, 
 for which Lincoln furnished the basic material, 
 and of which Lincoln read the proofs, must ever 
 be of prime interest among biographies of 
 Lincoln. 
 
 But it is doubtful if this was the first pub- 
 lished biography of Lincoln. "The Wigwam 
 Edition" was off the press as soon as, if not sooner 
 than, Scripps' "Life." It had no author's name 
 on its title page, and it did not stop the press 
 for any authentic information. It spelled 
 Abraham "Abram" and it invented the story 
 
Books About Lincoln [ 29 
 
 of Lincoln's boyhood, making him the eldest of a 
 large family and the support and stay of his 
 widowed mother after the death of his father, 
 and contained other and grave errors. It sold 
 for twenty-five cents, and it had a marked in- 
 fluence in making Lincoln a popular hero. 
 
 William Dean Howells made his advent into 
 literature about this time, and he wrote a 
 campaign biography of Lincoln; and a Boston 
 firm published "The Wideawake Edition" of 
 Lincoln's life. A Cincinnati firm published a 
 campaign biography by J. H. Barrett, and a 
 New York firm another by D. W. Bartlett. All 
 these were cloth bound volumes, but the 
 biographical data was meager; the books were 
 made up largely of Lincoln's speeches, and had 
 short sketches of Lincoln's running-mate, Han- 
 nibal Hamlin of Maine. AH in all they serve 
 to impress the modern reader with the paucity 
 of the information available concerning Lincoln 
 at the time when he became a candidate for the 
 presidency. 
 
 There was little improvement in the campaign 
 biographies of 1864. There are several of them, 
 and they add little if any biographical informa- 
 tion, but extend the subject matter in the 1860 
 books with material about the Civil War. 
 
30 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Immediately after Lincoln's death, the presses 
 were at work, printing "Complete" lives of 
 Lincoln. The first of these were made from the 
 plates or type of the 1864 biographies, with 
 pages added telling of his assassination, his 
 funeral, the trial of the assassins, the pursuit 
 of Booth, and so on. The first part of these 
 books speaks of him as stiE living. I have one 
 of these volumes in five editions, showing its 
 evolution from an 1864 campaign biography into 
 a "Complete Life" of Lincoln. The changes 
 show considerable ingenuity, but no great 
 literary merit. 
 
 There is one little book of this character which 
 deserves special mention. Of it I have seen 
 only a single copy, which I own. It is entitled 
 "Beadle's Dime Life of Lincoln." It was pre- 
 pared in 1864 by J. O. Victor, and after the 
 death of Lincoln was issued in a new edition 
 with a brief preface instead of supplement, tell- 
 ing of Lincoln's death. This little book was 
 the one which Lincoln's cousins could afford, 
 and which Dennis Hanks possessed and read and 
 found to contain some things true and other 
 things false. It is the only volume about 
 Lincoln which we know any relative of Lincoln 
 read at the time, with one single exception. 
 
Books About Lincoln [ 31 
 
 The exception is the first Boy's Life of Lincoln, 
 entitled "The Pioneer Boy," by William M. 
 Thayer. Robert Lincoln read this and wrote a 
 letter of commendation, in which he virtually 
 said that it was in essential accord with what he 
 had heard from his father. Robert was away at 
 school when he wrote this, and it is possible that 
 the publishers sent some one over to Cambridge 
 to get this testimonial from him. There they 
 should have stopped. But they had a copy of 
 the book specially bomid and sent it to Mr. 
 Lincoln in 1863. This copy, presented to the 
 President, is in a private collection in Chicago, 
 owned by Mr. Oliver R. Barrett. Across the 
 title-page, under the name of the author, has 
 been written in pencil, apparently by some 
 member of the President's family, this un- 
 complimentary designation of the author, "The 
 champion liar of history." 
 
 I do not think it was Mr. Lincoln who wrote 
 this line; had he lived, he would have found 
 other books about himself more completely 
 worthy of this comment. 
 
 How many Lives of himself Mr. Lincoln read 
 is not known. Apparently he regarded the 
 campaign biographies of 1860 and 1864 as 
 instruments, necessary to an important end, 
 
32 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 and otherwise of no great consequence. He 
 might have modified the affirmation which the 
 spirit of Thaddeus Stevens is alleged to have 
 rapped out to Mr. Dickey, the Member of 
 Congress who had in charge the memorial 
 service, and who was troubled because more 
 senators and representatives wanted to speak 
 than could be crowded into the program. 
 Having inquired their names, and learned that 
 the list included many of his old time opponents 
 as well as his friends and those who had been 
 closely associated with him, the spirit of the 
 doughty old fighter is alleged to have said: — 
 
 "Since I don't have to listen to the speeches, 
 I don't care a rap who delivers them." 
 
 Lincoln did not have to read all these books. 
 
 The literature which followed the death of 
 Lincoln was not wholly biographical. The Sun- 
 day following the death of Lincoln was devoted 
 in hundreds of pulpits to discom-ses upon his 
 character and the lessons of his life and death. 
 In many cities special services were held, then, 
 and on May 20, the day of his burial. The 
 discourses delivered at these services, hastily 
 prepared, were nevertheless earnest and timely, 
 and in many cases were printed. These have 
 become rare items for the collector, who has an 
 
Books About Lincoln [ 33 
 
 endless task before him if he attempts to seciire 
 anything like a complete list. Beside the lesser 
 addresses were formal orations by George Ban- 
 croft, Charles Sumner, Schuyler Colfax and 
 others, orations which have a permanent place 
 in literature. 
 
 Then came collections of his writings, col- 
 lections of poems about him, one of the latter 
 published by Lippincott as early as 1865, and 
 others following in reasonably swift succession. 
 The number of Lincoln anthologies is not small, 
 and some of the more recent ones have been of 
 the best. 
 
 Books of Lincoln stories began in time to 
 issue. Many stories were told while Lincoln 
 was alive which claimed him as their author. 
 I have Judge Arnold's own copy of one of the 
 earlier collections of alleged Lincoln Stories. 
 It bears upon its fly-leaf the penciled comment 
 of that competent biographer and friend of 
 Lincoln to the effect that "About half of these 
 stories are authentic, and most of them badly 
 told." But books of Lincoln jokes continue to 
 escape the press; though it would appear that 
 there could be no large source of unexplored 
 material for works of this character. 
 
 Soon after Lincoln's death, biographies began 
 
34 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Boohs 
 
 to appear which were not revamped campaign 
 documents, but which undertook in the Kght 
 of such knowledge as was then available to 
 trace the career of Abraham Lincoln from the 
 cradle to the grave. Mrs. Phoebe A. Hanaford 
 produced such a book, the first biography of 
 Lincoln to be written by a woman. Frank A. 
 Crosby of the Philadelphia bar wrote one. 
 J. H. Barrett and H. J. Raymond rewrote their 
 campaign biographies; and the latter appended 
 to his work the first really valuable collection 
 of Lincoln's state papers. Dr. L. P. Brockett, 
 a physician, wrote another, which contains some 
 evidence of original investigation. But the 
 most notable, and by far the most valuable, 
 of the 1865 biographies, was that by Josiah G. 
 Holland, who also began life as a physician, 
 but whose career was in literature, as historian 
 and novelist, and who was for many years editor 
 of the Springfield Republican and afterward of 
 Scribner's Magazine. 
 
 Meantime, there was in preparation a body of 
 material which emerged in two notable books. 
 William H. Herndon of Springfield was for many 
 years and until the death of Lincoln, law-partner 
 of Abraham Lincoln. The sign "Lincoln and 
 Herndon" was not taken down even , when 
 
Books About Lincoln [ 35 
 
 Lincoln went to Washington; and the partner- 
 ship was not formally dissolved until death 
 ended it. Herndon had taken notes of Lincoln, 
 his . personal appearance, his habits, his dress, 
 his moods, his domestic and political affairs, and 
 much beside. After Lincoln's death he visited 
 Lincoln's step-mother and sm-viving relatives, 
 and procured from them statements about 
 Lincoln. He also visited Kentucky, and col- 
 lected a large and valuable body of material. 
 But his plan to make a book of this was post- 
 poned for reasons which are sufficiently known 
 and need not here be repeated, tiU Herndon lost 
 heart; and, being in financial distress, sold for 
 $2,000, copies of his Lincoln manuscripts to 
 Col. Ward Hill Lamon. Lamon was a Virgin- 
 ian, who had lived at Danville, Illinois, where 
 he was Lincoln's associate, and was often spoken 
 of as his local partner, in the trial of cases in 
 court. Lincoln appointed him Marshal of the 
 District of Columbia. After Lincoln's death he 
 formed a partnership with Jeremiah S. Black, 
 who had been Attorney General in the Cabinet 
 of Buchanan, and counsel for Andrew Johnson 
 on his trial on impeachment. Black's son, 
 Chauncey F. Black, who in 1885 edited his 
 father's writings and wrote a biographical 
 
36 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Boohs 
 
 preface to them, had considerable literary skiE, 
 and no love for Lincoln, He assisted Lamon, 
 and, as Herndon later affirmed, wrote "quite 
 every word" of Lamon's Life of Lincoln, which 
 was published in 1872, and brought the narrative 
 down to the time of his first inauguration. 
 
 The result was a surprise and shock. Lamon's 
 book evoked the most vehement denimciations 
 against Lamon, Black and Herndon. The pub- 
 lishers lost money; Lamon lost both money and 
 prestige; and there was a three-cornered quarrel 
 over material which Black had insisted on pub- 
 lishing and which Lamon and the publishers 
 rejected, relative to the close of Buchanan's 
 administration and other matters. The book 
 did not sell; and the bulk of the edition dis- 
 appeared so mysteriously that it is charged that 
 friends and perhaps relatives of Lincoln bought 
 and destroyed such copies as they were able to 
 procure. 
 
 Unfrightened by the reception of Lamon's 
 book, Herndon himself essayed the task of 
 writing a biography of Lincoln. Assisted by 
 Jesse W. Weik, of Greencastle, Indiana, he 
 published in three volumes his Life of Lincoln, 
 which appeared in 1889. The storm that had 
 beat upon the head of Lamon was a mere sum- 
 
Books About Lincoln [ 37 
 
 iner shower compared with the tempest which 
 descended upon Herndon. His publishers failed, 
 and his book became difficult to obtain. The 
 reasons for the criticism heaped upon it and 
 its author need not here be discussed. It is a 
 book which every collector desires, and that in 
 the first edition. If he is able to procm-e it for 
 less than fifty dollars for the three volumes, 
 he does well; it is practically certain that 
 it will sell before many years for at least a 
 hundred. 
 
 Another edition of this work, in two volumes, 
 and with some omissions and modifications, and 
 a new Introduction by Horace White, was issued 
 by Appletons, and is stUl on sale. For all pur- 
 poses except those of the collector and the 
 author this edition is as good as the expensive 
 one. 
 
 Two of Lincoln's secretaries, John G. Nicolay 
 and John Hay, prepared and issued a work in 
 ten volumes, entitled, "Abraham Lincoln: A 
 History." It first ran in the Century Magazine, 
 and appeared in book form in 1890. It is a 
 mine of information, invaluable to all who 
 would follow the career of Lincoln into its 
 details, but it is a history rather than a biog- 
 raphy. 
 
38 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 In the same year appeared "The Life of 
 Abraham Lincoln" by Ida M. Tarbell, which had 
 been rmming as a serial in McClure's Magazine. 
 It is a picturesque, well illustrated work, and 
 generally reUable. It is easily the first among 
 works which may be held to portray the maga- 
 zine Lincoln. 
 
 The American Statesman Series is a valuable 
 series throughout. Its general editor, John T. 
 Morse, Jr., reserved to himself the writing of 
 the two volumes on Lincoln. It is a good piece 
 of biographical work, though somewhat cold 
 and academic. 
 
 The Centennary of Abraham Lincoln, ia 1909, 
 saw the publication of innumerable works re- 
 lating to the great President. They need not be 
 named here, for this is no attempt to give a 
 complete list of books about Lincoln, and most 
 of those that appeared in that and subsequent 
 years are still in print or easily obtainable. All 
 that this sketch undertakes is to indicate the 
 stages of growth of the Lincoln literature. 
 
 There have been and are innumerable anthol- 
 ogies, collections, and monographs on various 
 aspects of the career of Lincoln, some of them 
 of very considerable value, and all of them of 
 interest. Every anniversary of Lincoln's birth 
 
Books About Lincoln [ 39 
 
 sees the publication of addresses, some of which 
 take their place among Lincoln works of value. 
 
 This sketch does not attempt to name all, 
 even of the important books about Lincoln. It 
 endeavors rather to indicate the main lines along 
 which the evolution of Lincoln literatiu-e has 
 developed, and something of the relation of the 
 successive developments to each other. 
 
 It is most gratifying to all true Americans to 
 discover how within recent years the name of 
 Abraham Lincoln has come into honor in 
 England. He cannot be said to have been held 
 in adequate reverence there during his lifetime. 
 The London Punch held him up to constant 
 ridicule, and atoned for having so done in a 
 poem which was one of the notable tributes to 
 Lincoln after his death. In 1907 Henry Bryan 
 Binns wrote what is considered the first English 
 Life of Lincoln. It is a scrappy and un- 
 balanced book, but written in a good spirit, and 
 not without its value. It was not, however, 
 the first Life of Lincoln published in Great 
 Britain. That honor belongs to G. W. Bacon, 
 who, in 1865, published in London a little 
 volume based on Victor's dime biography in 
 the Beadle series, with some material gathered 
 from Barrett and Raymond. 
 
40 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 A small and appreciative but not highly- 
 valuable Life of Lincoln has recently been pub- 
 lished with Hon. Ralph Shirley as its author. 
 An American edition has been issued and is on 
 the market. 
 
 But far the most notable and valuable of 
 English works on Lincoln is that of Lord 
 Charnwood. While he makes many mistakes, 
 he has given us a work of genuine value. In 
 some things he has been able to see American 
 life with sufficient detachment and clarity to 
 justify him in a discriminating and critical, 
 and at the same time thoroughly appreciative, 
 judgment. One can make no mistake in buying 
 and reading Charnwood, even though he must 
 make allowances for certain limitations in the 
 work of an author who does not know American 
 life thoroughly. 
 
 To Charnwood we are indebted for the sug- 
 gestion of John Drinkwater's play, "Abraham 
 Lincoln," just now enjoying a rather astonish- 
 ing vogue. Drinkwater acknowledges his debt 
 to Charnwood, and it is apparent. What shall 
 we say of this simple drama which started 
 obscxu:ely in Birmingham, captured London, 
 and now, having achieved a great success 
 in New York and Washington, is certain to 
 
Books About Lincoln [ 41 
 
 be seen and profoundly enjoyed in every 
 American city? 
 
 The play is wrong in almost every possible 
 detail, and right in its essential message. The 
 author does not imderstand America, and his 
 Lincoln is so thoroughly English that he almost 
 drops his h's. It is an Englishman's interpreta- 
 tion of another Englishman's interpretation of 
 Lincoln. An English author does not easily 
 understand that Lincoln, after delivering his 
 notable speech on the "house divided against 
 itself," which he addressed to the Republican 
 convention in Springfield in 1858, was still not 
 an abolitionist. He opposed the further ex- 
 tension of slavery into the territories, but had no 
 present plan or desire to interfere with it where 
 it existed in the States. His emancipation 
 policy was an intellectual and political and 
 spiritual evolution. Nothing can be further 
 from the truth than that Lincoln, when nomi- 
 nated, stood so committed to a policy akin to 
 that of John Brown as is assumed in the opening 
 lines of Drinkwater's play — a policy which 
 would then deliberately plunge the nation into 
 civil war for the sake of the freedom of 
 the slave. Such an interpretation wholly de- 
 nies what we know of the growth of the 
 
42 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 purpose to free tlie slaves as it existed in the 
 mind of Lincoln. 
 
 If Drinkwater misunderstands Lincoln, much 
 more does he misunderstand the men associated 
 with him. Seward was an ambitious man, who 
 believed himself a greater man than the Presi- 
 dent; but he was not a fawning sneak. The 
 characterization of General Grant as a man who 
 could not move a yard away from his whiskey 
 bottle is a close approach to a libel. As for the 
 old darkey whose impossible dialect appears in 
 the book and which had to be re-written for the 
 American stage, he is absurd enough when the 
 character is named "Custis." But in the 
 English version that ridiculous character bears 
 the name of Frederick Douglas. That is a 
 sufficient measure of Mr. Drinkwater's ability to 
 estimate correctly the men who were Lincoln's 
 contemporaries. 
 
 Nevertheless, I have read the play, and have 
 seen it on the stage, and while compelled at 
 every step to recognize the historical absurdities 
 in it — only a few of which are here noted — ^I 
 have been compelled to say that Drinkwater, 
 writing under the stress of Britain's sacrifice 
 in a great war, has found in Abraham Lincoln an 
 ennobling ideal and exponent of that for which 
 
Books About Lincoln [ 43 
 
 Britain was striving; and that which is universal 
 in men who give themselves in sublime devotion 
 to a great cause; he has seen in Lincoln's 
 patience and nobility of soul and capacity for 
 sympathy, and in the tragedy with which his 
 life closed, something which rises above all 
 historical limitations, and which the playwright 
 has discovered for himself and shown to others. 
 Qne cannot read or see the play without feeling 
 its deep moral earnestness, its power of spiritual 
 interpretation, its subtle comprehension of the 
 soul of a great man working through heroic 
 sacrifice toward the attainment of a great ideal. 
 
 It is interesting to remind om^selves that 
 Drinkwater's is not quite the first attempt to 
 portray Lincoln on the British stage. A good 
 many years ago there appeared in Glasgow a 
 play entitled "The Tragedy of Abraham Lin- 
 coln: In Five Acts. By an American Artist." 
 How successful it! was, the present writer does 
 not know. It was printed, and virtually the 
 entire edition was destroyed by fire, only 
 twenty-nine copies being saved, and most of 
 those badly smoked and with charred edges. 
 
 The author was Hiram D. Torrie. His name 
 does not appear in the book. He obtained much 
 of his information from old John Hanks, and 
 
44 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 some of it is really interesting. John Hanks is a 
 second hero in the book. He not only does all 
 the things that John Hanks did in his own 
 proper person, but, as the author explains in 
 the preface, it was necessary for dramatic 
 reasons to continue his activity through the 
 play; so he combines the functions of Allan 
 Pinkerton, Boston Corbett and others, pro- 
 tecting Lincoln while he lived and avenging 
 him when he died. One almost comes to think 
 that John Hanks may have said to Torrie about 
 what Dennis Hanks wrote to Herndon, "I will 
 say this to you: if you don't have my name very 
 frequently in your book, it won't go at all." 
 
 The book is very rare, and has a special inter- 
 est as a contrast to the work of John Drink- 
 water, which, with all its limitations, has won 
 an assured place for itself in Lincoln literature. 
 
 It is interesting to know that Mr. Drinkwater 
 is following his play with a book, announced for 
 publication in the autumn of 1920, entitled, 
 "Lincoln, the World Emancipator." Whatever 
 its limitations, and they are not likely to be few, 
 the title indicates a point of view which must 
 give interest to the book; for Mr. Drinkwater 
 thinks of Lincoln not simply as the emancipator 
 of American black slaves, but as "The World 
 
Books Ahoid Lincoln [ 45 
 
 Emancipator". Lincoln has become not simply 
 America's most representative American, but in 
 many respects the foremost world-citizen. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln is a young folks' hero. 
 There are several good Lives of Lincoln for 
 boys and girls; nor is it easy to think of a modern 
 character the study of whose life could be more 
 valuable for young people. 
 
 Beside formal biographies there are many 
 books of genuine value which deal with special 
 aspects of Lincoln's life. The volume of 
 Reminiscences edited by Allan Thorndike Rice, 
 while out of print, is still easily obtainable and 
 is a book of permanent worth. Among books 
 that deal with aspects of his character or career, 
 one thinks at once of Rothschild's "Honest 
 Abe" and "Lincoln, Master of Men," of Judge 
 Richards' "Lincoln, the Lawyer-Statesman," 
 of Colonel Carr's "Lincoln at Gettysburg," and 
 other well known and justly esteemed mono- 
 graphs. 
 
 The religion of Lincohi has called forth an 
 extensive Uteratm-e, I wiU not mention this, 
 for I have sought to cover that and adjacent 
 fields ia my "The Soul of Abraham Lincoln." 
 
 The ancestry of Lincoln has evoked a small, 
 but important literature, to which I have given 
 
46 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 a critical analysis in my "The Paternity of 
 Abraham Lincoln", and need not mention here 
 in detail. 
 
 Some of the biographies of Abraham Lincoln 
 were promptly translated into other languages, 
 and soon other and original works concerning 
 him appeared in other lands. His Life is now 
 to be found not only in French and Spanish and 
 German and Italian and Dutch, but in Japanese 
 and Chinese and in various other languages and 
 dialects. A very interesting shelf can be made 
 of Lives of Lincoln in languages other than the 
 English; and such a collection is valuable as 
 showing how far the name and character of this 
 great man are known and honored the whole 
 world around. 
 
 The books about Lincoln which are still in 
 print and obtainable without the payment of a 
 premium upon the prices of the publishers, are 
 less in number than those that are out of print. 
 But it is to be remembered that those which are 
 most permanently valuable have not been 
 allowed to die. Important as it is for collectors 
 and for authors to consult the books which no 
 longer stand upon the shelves of the vendors 
 of current books, the books that give the best 
 and most mature views of Lincoln are aU still 
 
Books About Lincoln [ 47 
 
 obtainable and at reasonable rates. The 
 bibliography at the close of this volume shows 
 how many they are and how varied is the list. 
 
 He who would realize how voluminous is the 
 Lincoln literature should visit some really large 
 collection, and see for himself something of its 
 extent and variety. But if this be not practi- 
 cable, he may at least consult the Bibliography 
 issued by the Library of Congress in 1906, imder 
 the diligent labor of George T. Ritchie, and sold 
 at the nominal price which the Government 
 places upon its publications. But the list has 
 lengthened measurably since Mr. Ritchie did 
 his work; and a more nearly complete bibliog- 
 raphy is that of Honorable Daniel Fish of 
 Minneapolis, of which, I believe, a new and 
 enlarged edition is in preparation. 
 
 He who looks through this volume, or sees the 
 books, is sure to ask, "How is it possible that 
 there should be so much to say and write about 
 one man.!* Are we not at the end? Can future 
 authors do any more than thrash over the old 
 straw?" 
 
 I think I can answer the latter question with 
 confident affirmation. There stiU is unpublished 
 material of value concerning Abraham Lincoln. 
 Patient research is certain to imcover new 
 
48 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 sources of information. One who has been for 
 many years a gleaner in this field learns that 
 there are yet considerable areas of information 
 awaiting the careful investigation of the in- 
 dustrious and discriminating author. Lincoln 
 books wUl continue to appear. 
 
 Many of the new books will be good books. 
 They will contain new information, and what is 
 more, they will reveal the growing greatness of 
 Lincoln which even now we are only beginning 
 to realize, and which we could not know till 
 receding decades gave to us adequate perspective 
 for the estimate of so great a man. Old books 
 about Lincoln increase in price, because the fame 
 of Lincoln grows greater every year. 
 
 Furthermore, Lincoln books are of permanent 
 value. Scarce items are becoming more scarce 
 and more valuable; and there appears at present 
 no reason to expect that interest in Abraham 
 Lincoln will diminish. His fame grows with 
 the generations. He was once the hero of a 
 nation; he is now a world hero. 
 
PAET II 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF 
 LINCOLN 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS 
 OF LINCOLN 
 
 Notes fok a Law Lecture 
 
 July 1, I860 
 
 frhese notes give to us the most comprehensive view in Lincoln's 
 own words of the dignity of his chosen profession, and the avenue to 
 success in it. They also indicate something of his idea of professional 
 ethics, and are a good example of his power of dear and forceful 
 statement.] 
 
 I AM not an accomplished lawyer. I find quite as 
 much material for a lecture in those points wherein I have 
 failed as in those wherein I have been moderately success- 
 ful. The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of 
 every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to- 
 morrow which can be done today. Never let your cor- 
 respondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you 
 have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining 
 to it which can then be done. When you bring a com- 
 mon-law suit, if you have the facts for doing so, write the 
 declaration at once. If a law point be involved, examine 
 the books, and note the authority you rely on upon the 
 declaration itself, where you are sure to find it when 
 wanted. The same of defenses and pleas. In business 
 not likely to be litigated,-^ordinary collection cases, fore- 
 closures, partitions, and the like, — ^make all examinations 
 of titles, and note them, and even draft orders and decrees 
 in advance. This course has a triple advantage; it avoids 
 
 51 
 
52 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 omissions and neglect, saves your labor when once done, 
 performs the labor out of court when you have leisure, 
 rather than in court when you have not. Extemporaneous 
 speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the 
 lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faith- 
 ful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring 
 him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet there 
 is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying 
 too much on speech-making. If any one, upon his rare 
 powers of speaking, shall claim an exemption from the 
 drudgery of the law, his case is a failure in advance. 
 
 Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to 
 compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how 
 the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, 
 and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a 
 superior opportunity of being a good man. There will 
 still be business enough. 
 
 Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be 
 found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly 
 a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of 
 deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up 
 strife, and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought 
 to be infused into the profession which should drive such 
 men out of it. 
 
 The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere 
 question of bread and butter involved. Properly attended 
 to, fuller justice is done to both lawyer and client. An 
 exorbitant fee should never be claimed. As a general 
 rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more 
 than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you 
 are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same 
 interest in the case, as if something was still in prospect 
 for you, as well as for your client. And when you lack 
 interest in the case the job will very likely lack skill and 
 
Selections from the Writings of Lincoln [ 53 
 
 diligence in the performance. Settle the amount of fee 
 and take a note in advance. Then you will feel that you 
 are working for something, and you are sure to do your 
 work faithfully and well. Never sell a fee note — at least 
 not before the consideration service is performed. It 
 leads to negligence and dishonesty — negligence by losing 
 interest in the case, and dishonesty in refusing to refund 
 when you have allowed the consideration to fail. 
 
 There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are neces- 
 sarily dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider 
 to what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and 
 conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears improb- 
 able that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct 
 and vivid. Yet the impression is common, almost uni- 
 versal. Let no young man choosing the law for a calling 
 for a moment yield to the popular belief — resolve to be 
 honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you 
 cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without 
 being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather 
 than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, 
 consent to be a knave. 
 
54 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 A Fragment Concerning Free and 
 Slave Labor 
 
 July 1, 1854 
 
 [This is one of the most frequently misquoted of Lincoln's utterances. 
 The statement "Twenty-five years ago I was a hired laborer" has been 
 used as the basis of a lengthy statement containing much which Lincoln 
 did not say. It is an early and very significant declaration of Lincoln's 
 opinions on the practical value of free labor, and worthy of a high place 
 in the literature of this subject.] 
 
 Equality in society alike beats inequality, whether 
 the latter be of the British aristocratic sort or of the 
 domestic slavery sort. We know Southern men declare 
 that their slaves are better off than hired laborers amongst 
 us. How little they know whereof they speak! There 
 is no permanent class of hired laborers amongst us. 
 Twenty-five years ago I was a hired laborer. The hired 
 laborer of yesterday labors on his own account today, and 
 will hire others to labor for him tomorrow. Advance- 
 ment — improvement in condition — is the order of things 
 in a society of equals. As labor is the common burden 
 of our race, so the effort of some to shift their share of the 
 burden onto the shoulders of others is the great durable 
 curse of the race. Originally a curse for transgression 
 upon the whole race, when, as by slavery, it is concen- 
 trated on a part only, it becomes the double-refined curse 
 of God upon his creatures. 
 
 Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery 
 has no hope. The power of hope upon human exertion 
 and happiness is wonderful. The slave-master himself has 
 a conception of it, and hence the system of tasks among 
 slaves. The slave whom you cannot drive with the lash 
 to break seventy-five pounds of hemp in a day, if you 
 will task him to break a hundred, and promise him pay 
 for all he does over, he will break you a hundred and fifty. 
 
Selections from the Writings of Lincoln [ 55 
 
 You have substituted hope for the rod. And yet perhaps 
 it does not occur to you that to the extent of your gain 
 in the case, you have given up the slave system and 
 adopted the free system of labor. 
 
56 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 The House Divided Against Itself 
 
 June 16, 1858 
 
 [This is the opening paragraph of the speech which is believed to 
 have defeated Lincoln in his candidacy for the Senate, and by that 
 process made him the more certainly a candidate for the Presidency. 
 This paragraph was prepared with as great care as Lincoln ever gave 
 to a public utterance. He knew that by it he was to stand or fall. The 
 speech was delivered in Springfield, at the close of the convention that 
 nominated Mr. Lincoln as Senator in opposition to Stephen A. Douglas.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: If we 
 could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, 
 we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We 
 are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated 
 with the avowed object and confident promise of putting 
 an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that 
 policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has 
 constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease 
 until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A 
 house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this 
 government cannot endure permanently half slave and 
 half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I 
 do not expect the house to fall — ^but I do expect it will 
 cease to be divided. It wiU become all one thing, or all 
 the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest 
 the further spread of it, and place it where the public 
 mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of 
 ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward 
 till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as 
 well as new. North as well as South. 
 
Selections from the Writings of Lincoln [ 57 
 His Last Wobds At Springfield 
 
 February 11, 1860 
 
 [On the morning before his fifty-second birthday, Mr. Lincoln stood 
 on the rear platform of the train that was to bear him away from Spring- 
 field to Washington. A solemn premonition was upon him that he 
 might be addressing for the last time his old neighbors and friends. 
 Almost choking with emotion, and with tears at the end blm-ring his 
 vision, he spoke the words of this brief farewell.] 
 
 My Friends: No one, not in my situation, can appre- 
 ciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, 
 and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here 
 I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from 
 a young to an old man. Here my children have been 
 born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when 
 or whether ever I may return, with a task before me 
 greater than that which rested upon Washington. With- 
 out the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended 
 him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot 
 fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain 
 with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently 
 hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending 
 you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I 
 bid you an afiEectionate farewell. 
 
58 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 The Emancipation Pkoclamation 
 
 January 1, 1863 
 [By this document, Lincoln freed a race.] 
 
 By the President of the United States of America: 
 A Proclamation 
 
 Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in 
 the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
 sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of 
 the United States, containing, among other things, the 
 following, to wit: 
 
 "That on the first day of January, in the year of our 
 Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all 
 persons held as slaves within any State, or designated 
 part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebel- 
 lion against the United States, shall be then, thencefor- 
 ward, and forever free; and the Executive Government 
 of the United States, including the military and naval 
 authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom 
 of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such 
 persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make 
 for their actual freedom. 
 
 "That the Executive will, on the first day of January 
 aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and 
 parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof respect- 
 ively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; 
 and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall 
 on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress 
 of the United States by members chosen thereto at elec- 
 tions wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such 
 State shall have participated, shall in the absence of 
 strong countervailing testimony be deemed conclusive 
 evidence that such State and the people thereof are not 
 then in rebellion against the United States." 
 
Selections from the Writings of Lincoln [ 59 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
 United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as 
 commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United 
 States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the 
 authority and government of the United States, and as a 
 fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebel- 
 lion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our 
 Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in 
 accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed 
 for the full period of 100 days from the day first above 
 mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts 
 of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are 
 this day in rebellion against the United States, the follow- 
 ing, to wit: 
 
 Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. 
 Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, 
 St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafour- 
 che, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city 
 of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, 
 South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the 
 forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also 
 the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Eliza- 
 beth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including 
 the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted 
 parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclama- 
 tion were not issued. 
 
 And by virtue of the power and for the purpose afore- 
 said, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves 
 within said designated States and parts of States are, and 
 henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive 
 Government of the United States, including the military 
 and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain 
 the freedom of said persons. 
 
 And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be 
 
60 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self- 
 defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when 
 allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 
 
 And I further declare and make known that such per- 
 sons of suitable condition will be received into the armed 
 service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, 
 stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts 
 in said service. 
 
 And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of 
 justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military 
 necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind 
 and the gracious favor of Almighty God. 
 
 In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and 
 caused the seal of the United States to be aflSxed. 
 
 Done at the city of Washington, this first day of 
 January, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the inde- 
 pendence of the United States of America the 
 eighty-seventh. 
 
 Abbaham Lincoln. 
 By the President: William H. Sewabd, Secretary of 
 State. 
 
Selections from the Writings of Lincoln [ 61 
 The Gettysburg Address 
 
 November 19, 1863 
 
 [This little speech, which followed a truly great oration, two hours 
 in length, by Edward Everett, one of the most noted orators of his 
 generation, grows every year in popularity; and is one of the surest pieces 
 of oratory in the English language to endure through coming centuries.] 
 
 FoTJBSCOBE and seven years ago our fathers brought 
 forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, 
 and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created 
 equal. 
 
 Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing 
 whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so 
 dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle- 
 field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion 
 of that field as a final resting-place for those who here 
 gave their lives that that nation might live. It is alto- 
 gether fitting and proper that we should do this. 
 
 But, in a larger sense, we caimot dedicate — we cannot 
 consecrate — ^we cannot hallow — ^this ground. The brave 
 men, Uving and dead, who struggled here, have conse- 
 crated it far above our poor power to add or detract. 
 The world will little note nor long remember what we 
 say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It 
 is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the 
 unfinished work which they who fought here have thus 
 far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here 
 dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that 
 from these honored dead we take increased devotion to 
 that cause for which they gave the last full measure of 
 devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead 
 shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, 
 shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government 
 of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not 
 perish from the earth. 
 
62 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 Address on His Re-Election 
 
 November 10, 1864 
 
 [During the summer of 1864, Lincoln reached the definite conclusion 
 that he was to be defeated in November. The tide of popular opinion 
 turned, however, and Lincoln was triumphantly re-elected. To a com- 
 pany that came to serenade him at the White House just after the news 
 of the election was confirmed, Mr. Lincoln delivered a short and im- 
 pressive address.] 
 
 It has long been a grave question whether any govern- 
 ment, not too strong for the Hberties of its people, can be 
 strong enough to maintain its existence in great emer- 
 gencies. On this point the present rebellion brought our 
 republic to a severe test, and a presidential election occur- 
 ring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a 
 little to the strain. 
 
 If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of 
 their strength by the rebellion, must they not fail when 
 divided and partially paralyzed by a political war among 
 themselves? But the election was a necessity. We can- 
 not have free government without elections; and if the 
 rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national 
 election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered 
 and ruined us. The strife of the election is but human 
 nature practically applied to the facts of the case. What 
 has occurred in this case must ever recur in similar cases. 
 Human nature will not change. In any future great 
 national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall 
 have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad 
 and as good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of 
 this as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of 
 them as wrongs to be revenged. But the election, along 
 with its incidental and undesirable strife, has done good 
 too. It has demonstrated that a people's government 
 can sustain a national election in the. midst of a great 
 
Selections from the Writings of Lincoln [ 63 
 
 civil war. Until now, it has not been known to the world 
 that this was a possibility. It shows, also, how sound 
 and how strong we still are. It shows that, even among 
 candidates of the same party, he who is most devoted to 
 the Union and most opposed to treason can receive most 
 of the people's votes. It shows, also, to the extent yet 
 known, that we have more men now than we had when 
 the war began. Gold is good in its place, but living, 
 brave, patriotic men are better than gold. 
 
 But the rebellion continues, and now that the election 
 is over, may not all having a common interest reunite in 
 a common effort to save our common country? For my 
 own part, 1 have striven and shall strive to avoid placing 
 any obstacle in the way. So long as I have been here I 
 have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bpsom. 
 While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment of a 
 re-election, and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God 
 for having directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, 
 as I think, for their own good, it adds nothing to my 
 satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed or 
 pained by the result. 
 
 May I ask those who have not differed with me to 
 join with me in this same spirit toward those who have? 
 And now let me close by asking three hearty cheers for 
 our brave soldiers and seamen and their gallant and 
 skilful commanders. 
 
64 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 The Second Inaugbal Address 
 
 March 4, 1866 
 
 [It is no disparagement of the Gettysburg address^ to say that this 
 is Lincoln's masterpiece. It was his crowning achievement in the 
 sphere of oratory. Of it he wrote a few days later to Thurlow Weed 
 that while he did not think the views he expressed were popular, he 
 believed that this speech would "wear as well as — ^perhaps better than — 
 anything I have produced." It measures Lincoln's nobility of soul and 
 power of expression at high tide. It is the greatest word he ever spoke.] 
 
 Fellow-countrymen: At this second appearing to take 
 the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion 
 for an extended address than there was at the first. Then 
 a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pur- 
 sued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration 
 of four years, during which public declarations have been 
 constantly called forth on every point and phase of the 
 great contest which still absorbs the attention and en- 
 grosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could 
 be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all 
 else chiefly depends, is as well known to the pubhc as to 
 myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and en- 
 couraging to all. With high hope for the future, no 
 prediction in regard to it is ventured. 
 
 On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, 
 all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending 
 civil war. All dreaded it — all sought to avert it. While 
 the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, 
 devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, 
 insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it 
 without war — seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide 
 effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but 
 one of them would make war rather than let the nation 
 survive; and the other would accept war rather than let 
 it perish. And the war came. 
 
 One-eighth of the whole population were colored 
 
Selections from the Writings of Lincoln [ 65 
 
 slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but 
 localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves con- 
 stituted a pecular and powerful interest. All knew that 
 this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To 
 strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the 
 object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, 
 even by war; while the government claimed no right to 
 do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 
 Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or 
 the duration which it has already attained. Neither 
 anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease 
 with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. 
 Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less funda- 
 mental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and 
 pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against 
 the other. It may seem strange that any men should 
 dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their 
 bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us 
 judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both 
 could not be answered — that of neither has been answered 
 fully. 
 
 The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the 
 world because of offenses! for it must needs be that 
 offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense 
 cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is 
 one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, 
 must needs come, but which, having continued through 
 his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he 
 gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the 
 woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we 
 discern therein any departure from those divine attri- 
 butes which the believers in a living God always ascribe 
 to him? Fondly do we hope — ^fervently do we pray — 
 that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. 
 
66 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled 
 by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unre- 
 quited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood 
 drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with 
 the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still 
 it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and 
 righteous altogether." 
 
 With malice toward none; with charity for all; with 
 firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let 
 us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the 
 nation's woimds; to care for him who shall have borne 
 the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all 
 which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace 
 among ourselves, and with all nations. 
 
Selections from the Writings of Lincoln [ 67 
 
 Letter to the Parents of Colonel 
 Elmer E. Ellsworth 
 
 May 25, 1861 
 
 [The very beginning of bloodshed brought heart-break to the home 
 of President Lincoln, in the tragic death of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, 
 who had been almost a son to Mr. Lincoln. This letter which he sent 
 to the parents of the gallant young ofiScer shows the depth of his sym- 
 pathies and the strength of his personal affection.] 
 
 Washington, D. C, May 25, 1861. 
 To the Father and Mother of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth: 
 
 Mt Deab Sib and Madam: In the untimely loss of 
 you noble son, our affliction here is scarcely less than 
 your own. So much of promised usefulness to one's 
 country, and of bright hopes for one's self and friends, 
 have rarely been so suddenly dashed as in his fall. In 
 size, in years, and in youthful appearance a boy only, 
 his power to command men was surpassingly great. This 
 power, combined with a fine intellect, an indomitable 
 energy, and a taste altogether military, constituted in 
 him, as it seemed to me, the best natural talent in that 
 department I ever knew. 
 
 And yet he was singularly modest and deferential in 
 social intercourse. My acquaintance with him began 
 less than two years ago; yet through the latter half of 
 the intervening period it was as intimate as the disparity 
 of our ages and my engrossing occupations would permit. 
 To me he appeared to have no indulgences and no pas- 
 times; and I never heard him utter a profane or an in- 
 temperate word. What was conclusive of his good heart, 
 he never forgot his parents. The honors he labored for 
 so laudably, and for which in the sad end he gallantly 
 gave his life, he meant for them no less than for himself. 
 
 In the hope that it may be no intrusion upon the 
 sacredness of your sorrow, I have ventured to address 
 
68 ] Abraham Ldncoln and His Books 
 
 you this tribute in miemory of my young friend and your 
 brave and early fallen child. 
 
 May God give you consolation which is beyond all 
 earthly power. 
 
 Sincerely your friend in a common affliction, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
Selections from the Writings of Lincoln [ 69 
 Letter to Mrs. Bixbt 
 
 November 21, 1864 
 
 [Burdened ydth his public duties though he was, Mr. Lincoln found 
 time to write to a grief-stricken mother this letter.] 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington, November 21, 1864. 
 Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts: 
 
 Deab Madam: I have been shown in the files of the 
 War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of 
 Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who 
 have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how 
 weak and fruitless must be iany words of mine which 
 should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so 
 overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to 
 you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of 
 the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly 
 Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, 
 and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved 
 and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have 
 laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
 Yours very sincerely and respectfully, 
 
 Abeaham Lincoln. 
 
70 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 Letter to His Dying Father 
 
 January 12, 1861 
 
 [This letter, addressed to Lincoln's step-brother, John D. Johnston, 
 was sent on receipt of the news that Thomas Lincoln, Abraham's father, 
 was very ill, and probably could not recover. Lincoln had been generous 
 in his gifts to his father during his declining years, and cared tenderly 
 for his step-mother after his father's death. Prevented by illness in his 
 own home from going to his father's bedside, he wrote directing that no 
 care or comfort for either his father or step-mother should be omitted. 
 The closing part of the letter is given herewith.] 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, January 12, 1851. 
 Deak Bbotheh: 
 
 I sincerely hope father may recover his health; but at 
 all events, tell him to call upon and confide in our great 
 and good and merciful Maker, who will not turn away 
 from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a spar- 
 row, and numbers the hairs of our heads, and He will not 
 forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him. Say 
 to him that if we could meet now it is doubtful whether 
 it would not be more painful than pleasant, but that if 
 it be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting 
 with many loved ones gone before, and where the rest of 
 us, through the help of God, hope ere long to join him. 
 
 Write to me again when you receive this. 
 Affectionately, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
PABT III 
 
 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS IN PRINT 
 RELATING TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS IN PRINT 
 RELATING TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES AND REMINISCENCES 
 
 Arnold, Isaac N. 
 
 "The Life of Abraham Lincoiji" — 
 
 A. C. McClurg & Company $2.00 
 
 The life of the mimitable martyred President is here portrayed with 
 great faithfulness to detail. The style of writing is fluent, and graphic. 
 Few men knew Lincoln better than did Judge Arnold. The permanent 
 value of his book rests upon the author's first-hand knowledge, his 
 accurate judgment, and his power of analysis. 
 
 Barrett, J. H. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln and His Presidency" — 
 
 Stewart & Kidd Company. 2 volumes $6.00 
 
 This book is the product of an interesting evolution. Its germ was 
 a campaign biography, written by Dr. Barrett in 1860, after a personal 
 visit to Mr. Lincoln, who thought himself unworthy of the attempt but 
 directed the author to where the meagre material might be found. In 
 1865 the book was extended. In 1903, near the end of a long and useful 
 life, the author added his gathered material, much of it of large value, 
 and re-wrote it in two volumes. 
 
 Barton, William E. 
 
 "The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln, Was He 
 the Son of Thomas Lincoln?" — ^An essay on 
 the Chastity of Nancy Hanks. 
 
 George H. Doran Company $4.00 
 
 In this new volume, the author traces every rumor and report re- 
 lating to the question of Lincoln's birth, assembles all the evidence, and 
 subjects it to the most exacting critical analysis. As a result he has 
 arrived at the truth and renders a judgment from which he believes 
 there can be no successful appeal. 
 
 73 
 
74 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Boohs 
 
 Barton, William E. 
 
 "The Soul of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 George H. Doran Company $4.00 
 
 This study of the development of the intellectual and spiritual life 
 of Lincoln is primarily a record of his religious history, and is listed 
 under that department in this Bibliography. It deserves mention also 
 in this biographical section as containing a considerable amount of 
 biographical data not elsewhere available. 
 
 Bates, David Homer 
 
 "Lincoln in the Teleghaph Office" — 
 
 The Century Company $3.50 
 
 Intensely interesting, rich in anecdote, these intimate memories of 
 the martyr President's daily visits to the War Department Telegraph 
 Office, form a fresh and valuable contribution to enduring Lincoln 
 literature. 
 
 Brooks, Noah 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln, and the Downfall of 
 American Slavery" — 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons $2.30 
 
 "The work you have prepared presents the events which it narrates, 
 while with sufficient fullness, with a compactness and interest which 
 could not be surpassed." Robert L. Lincoln. 
 
 "Mr. Brooks in earlier years was intimate with Abraham Lincoln, 
 and has painted his portrait as he knew him. While his materials have 
 been drawn largely from common sources, he has used them skillfully 
 to set forth Lincoln's character, and he has made a book that will be 
 read with thrilling interest again and again." — ^Boston Herald. 
 
 Browne, Francis F. 
 
 "The Everyday Life of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons $2.50 
 
 The original edition of this book was published about twenty years 
 after Lincoln's death, and has continued to attract attention among the 
 growing circle of Lincoln's admirers. This newer and enlarged edition 
 is of permanent value. 
 
 This book brings Lincoln the man, not Lincoln the tradition, very 
 near to us. It embodies the reminiscences of over five hundred con- 
 temporaries and friends of Lincoln — ^reminiscences which were gathered 
 largely at first hand. 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 75 
 
 Carr, Clarke E. 
 
 "The Illini: A Stoby of the Prairies" — 
 
 A. C. McClurg & Company $3.50 
 
 This book presents in narrative form a reminiscent and historical 
 account of the life of the author (Hon. Clarke E. Carr, a former United 
 States Minister to Denmark) in Illinois from 1850 up to the time of the 
 Civil War. Among the famous men he had come into contact with was 
 Abraham Lincoln, of whom he gives the reader an intimate, colorful 
 picture. The great man is here presented as very frank, sincere, serious, 
 modest and simple-minded, and as having impressed the good people of 
 Illinois with his coming greatness. 
 
 Chapman, Ervin 
 
 "Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln and War- 
 time Memobies" — 
 
 Fleming H. Eevell Company. 2 volumes $5 . 00 
 
 For over fifty years the author has been gathering and weaving 
 into a coimected record, everything of value regarding the Martyr- 
 President, from Confederate documents, war-time publications, official 
 records, etc., indudmg material never before published. 
 
 Charnwood, G. R. B. Lord 
 "Abeaham Lincoln" — • 
 
 Henry Holt & Company $3.00 
 
 This is perhaps one of the most important biographies of Lincoln. 
 Its great merit is the manner in which the author has skillfully and 
 correctly drawn Lincoln's achievements against a world background. 
 John Drinkwater says of this book, "It gives a masterly analysis of 
 Lincoln's career and character and is, it seems to me, a model of what 
 the historian's work should be.' ' 
 
 It is by far the best biography of Lincoln written in England; and 
 is the acknowledged basis of Drinkwater's play. 
 
 Chittenden, Lucius E. 
 
 "Recollections of President Lincoln and 
 His Administration" — 
 
 Harper & Brothers $3.00 
 
 This book belongs to the valuable class of authentic memorials of a 
 great historic time. Lincoln admitted the author to his friendship, and 
 occasionally would take refuge in his office as a retreat. The book is a 
 pictme full of human interest and sympathy, that of the weary man, 
 sore burdened with the cares of state, finding thus in the inner room of 
 one of the chief accountants of the Treasury the solitude he yearned for. 
 
76 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Cowen, Benjamin R. 
 
 "Abraham Lxncoln: An Appreciation By One 
 Who Knew Him" — 
 
 Stewart & Kidd Company $1.00 
 
 The personal element in this Appreciation gives it special value. 
 
 Crook, William H. 
 
 "Through Five Administrations" — 
 
 Harper & Brothers $2.S0 
 
 Colonel Crook was Lincoln's body-guard before and at the time of his 
 assassination. He continued for some time in the capacity of a private 
 policeman for President Johnson, and during most of Johnson's adminis- 
 tration was a clerk in the Executive Office. It is a very human pictiure 
 that he presents of every-day life in the Executive Mansion. It b 
 certainly a unique gallery that contains five of these portraits, including 
 such subjects as Lincoln and Grant. 
 
 Curtis, William Elroy 
 
 "The True Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 J. B. Lippincott Company $2.50 
 
 A wealth of incident has been drawn upon by Mr. Curtis in sketching 
 the career of the great American. He first treats of Lincoln the man 
 and his kindred, and then of him in succession as leader of the Spring- 
 field bar, orator, politician. President, commander-in-chief, emandpator, 
 diplomat, philosopher, and of his moral and religious beliefs. There are 
 many special incidents and bits of intimate knowledge gathered from 
 various sources and hitherto unpublished. 
 
 Doster, W. E. 
 
 "Lincoln and Episodes of the Civil War" — 
 
 G. p. Putnam's Sons $1.50 
 
 Drinkwater, John 
 
 "Lincoln, the World Emancipator" — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company. Boards $1.60 
 
 The great success here and abroad of John Drinkwater's play, 
 "Abraham Lincoln," both on the stage and in book form, shows lus 
 understanding of Lincoln's career and his skill as an interpreter of 
 Lincoln's real character. In this uncommonly readable and suggestive 
 book, he studies him from a new angle, illuminating qualities which make 
 him not only the typical great American, but perhaps also the prime 
 example of the best characteristics and ideals of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 77 
 
 French, Prof. C. W. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipator" — 
 (American Reformer Series). 
 
 Funk & Wagnalls Company $1.75 
 
 Short popular life of Lincoln, gives the main facts in his career and a 
 general idea of the struggle he had to carry out his purposes. Does not 
 profess to be a complete life in any respect. 
 
 Gilder, Richard Watson 
 
 "Lincoln the Leader; and Lincoln's Genius for 
 Expression" — 
 
 Houghton MifiBin Company $1.50 
 
 "No student of Lincoln has more deftly proved this enigma of Lin- 
 coln's part and place in American history, or more clearly suggested its 
 solution." 
 
 Hapgood, Norman 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln: A Man of the People" — 
 
 The MacMillan Company $2.50 
 
 Hemdon, William, H. and Weik, Jesse W. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 D. Appleton & Company. 2 volumes $5.00 
 
 Probably the most intimate life of Lincoln that there is. The 
 authors are his law-partner, William H. Hemdon, and Herndon's friend, 
 Jesse W. Weik. The man is portrayed as he was, and this complete 
 frankness makes it an illuminating study of Lincoln's character and 
 personality. 
 
 Hill, Frederick Trevor 
 
 "Lincoln the Lawyer" — 
 
 The Century Company $3.00 
 
 Mr. Hill's affection and reverence for Lincoln add to the charm of his 
 record, which is based upon great research and study. Rich in anecdote 
 and incident and in reproduction of portraits and documents. 
 
 Eobson, J. T. ' 
 
 "Footprints of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 The Otterbein Press $0.50 
 
 The author does not claim that the book is a biography of Lincoln, 
 for many important facts in his life have been omitted. The object of 
 the author was to publish some facts, reminiscences, and illustrations 
 which have never been published before. 
 
78 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Ketcham, Henry 
 
 "The Life of Abraham Lincoln" — (Home 
 Library). 
 
 A. L. Burt Company $1-25 
 
 This book deals with the life of Lincoln beginning with his earliest 
 recorded ancestry — dealing with his boyhood days, through young 
 manhood and his whole political life down to the assassination. It also 
 contains a few testimonies as to the man by Henry Ward Beecher, Noah 
 Brooks, R. W. Emerson, James Russell Lowell, Henry Waterson and 
 others. 
 
 Levy, T. A. 
 
 "Lincoln, the Politician" — 
 
 R. G. Badger Company $2.00 
 
 This work covers the early, neglected period of Lincoln's political life 
 to show where he got his training and the consecration of his powers to 
 the welfare of the people. It is a study of the great statesman that is 
 timely and accomplished with clear discernment and discrimination, 
 sympathy and judgment. 
 
 Morse, John T. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — (American Statesmen 
 Series) — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company. 2 volumes $4 . 00 
 
 "As a Life of Lincoln it has no competitors; as a political history of 
 the Union side during the Civil War, it is the most comprehensive." — 
 Hanard Graduates' Magazine. 
 
 Nodal, E. S. 
 
 "A Virginian Village" — 
 
 The MacMillan Company $2.00 
 
 This book devotes a chapter to "Impressions of Lincoln," going 
 intimately into phases of Lincoln's character which are indicated in his 
 appearance or by his career. The writer dwells on his peculiar American- 
 ism, illustrated in his humor, his penetration, and his mercifulness. He 
 also discusses Lincoln's greatness as a thinker, speaker and man of 
 action, and writes very interestingly of the human qualities of the 
 peculiar genius but very familiar figure, which have made him better 
 understood than any great character in American history. 
 
A Bibliography of Boohs in Print [ 79 
 
 Nicolay, Helen 
 
 "Personal Tkaits of Abhaham Lincoln"— 
 Eight illustrations from papers in Lincoln's 
 Own Handwriting — 
 
 The Century Company $3.00 
 
 When John G. Nicolay began collecting material to be used in his 
 joint work with John Hay, "Abraham Lincoln: A History," he began 
 also putting many memoranda Into a series of envelopes marked "Per- 
 sonal Traits" meaning at the time to make use of this material in the 
 work which has come to be recognized as the authoritative life of Lin- 
 coln. This material in the end was not used in the large life; and it 
 has remained for John Nicolay's daughter to work the rich accumulation 
 of years into a volume in which the every-day life at the White House, 
 Lincoln's attitude toward money, his moral fibre, his relations to his 
 wife and children, and many other phases of Lincoln's private life are 
 delightfully and illuminatingly set forth in a record whose interest wUl 
 endure. ' 
 
 Nicolay, John G. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — A Short Life condensed 
 from Nicolay and Hay's Standard Work. 
 "Abraham Lincoln: A History" — 
 
 The Century Company $4.00 
 
 This is the most important and valuable single-volume life of Lincoln 
 in print — a remarkable condensation of the ten-volume work. For the 
 everyday use of the busy man and the student it is unsurpassed. 
 
 Nicolay, John G. and Hay, John 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln: A History" — ^The author- 
 ized life of Lincoln, by his private secretaries. 
 
 The Century Company. 10 volumes $3S . 00 
 
 This moniunental work is the only full and authoritative record of 
 the private life and public career of Abraham Lincoln. It is not only 
 an intimate personal history of the great War President, but it also 
 includes an account of the causes of the Rebellion, and is a record at 
 first hand of the inside history of the Civil War. 
 
 Oberholizer, E. P. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — (American Crisis Biogra- 
 phies) — 
 
 George W. Jacobs & Company $1.75 
 
 Hero worship has not influenced the author in the least degree in 
 drawing his picture. The truth is given dispassionately, and with 
 
80 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 exceptional detachment. The book is rightly accounted as frank a 
 treatment of the subject as has yet appeared. The failings as well as 
 the strength in Lincoln's character are excellently portrayed and a 
 balance is struck which shows the man as he really was. 
 
 Phillips, Isaac N. (Editor) 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — By the Men Who Knew 
 Him— 
 
 Pantagraph Company $1 . 50 
 
 A book of recollections by the following men: Judge Owen T. 
 Reeves, Hon. James S. Ewing, Col. Richard P. Morgan, Judge Franklin 
 Blades, Hon. John W. Bunn, Isaac N. Phillips. 
 
 This is an intimate and valuable collection, available in a small 
 edition only. 
 
 Putnam, George Haven 
 
 "The People's Leader in the Struggle for 
 National Existence" — 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons $1.50 
 
 With the above is included the speech delivered by Lincoln in New 
 York, February 27th, 1860; with an introduction by Charles C. Nott, 
 late Chief Justice of the Court of Claims, and annotations by Judge 
 Nott and by Cephas Brainerd, of the New York Bar. 
 
 Rankin, Henry B. 
 
 "Personal Recollections of Abraham 
 Lincoln" — Introduction by Joseph Fort 
 
 Newton — 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons $2.50 
 
 Illustrated with portraits in photogravure. The total impression 
 given by this book is such a sense of the living Lincoln, of his growth 
 and ripening of character, of his commanding personality, and genius, 
 as is to be found hardly anywhere else. 
 
 Rice, Allen Thorndike (Editor) 
 
 "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 Harper & Brothers $2.00 
 
 These papers are by the distinguished men of Lincoln's time. Among 
 them are Grant, Benjamin F. Butler, Henry Ward Beecher, Walt Whit- 
 man, Dana, IngersoU, and Frederick Douglass. Here are recollections 
 of lawyers who rode the Illinois circuit with Lincoln, pictures of Lincoln 
 as the Executive, Lincoln in the Cabinet, Lincoln in the midst of the 
 war, Lincoln at Gettysburg, Lincoln a man among men. 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 81 
 
 Richards, John Thomas 
 
 "Abhaham Lincoln, the Lawyer, Statesman" — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company $4.00 
 
 "Of the many books devoted to the life and works of Abraham Lin- 
 coln, none makes a larger claim upon the world's attention than this." 
 
 — Boston Transcript. 
 
 Rothschild, Alonzo 
 
 "Lincoln, Master of Men: A Study in 
 Chabactek" — 
 
 Houghton MifiBin Company $3.75 
 
 This notable biography — called by Robert Lincoln the best life of 
 his father he had ever read — is concerned particularly with Lincoln's 
 later life and with his mastery over different types of men as well as 
 over himself. 
 
 Rothschild, Alonzo 
 
 "Honest Abe: A Study in Integrity" — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company $3.00 
 
 A specially fine study for parents, and for young men who are just 
 entering upon world life, as it shows how integrity and honesty tend to 
 the development of strong, dependable men. 
 
 SchuTZ, Carl 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln: An Essay" — New Edition. 
 Preface by Calvin Coolidge — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company $1.50 
 
 Of this famous study of Abraham Lincoln, Governor Coolidge says: 
 "This essay of Mr. Schurz is written by one who knew his subject at 
 first hand. It represents the thought of one who had seen the great 
 conflict through the perspective of more than a quarter of a century of 
 deliberation. Its great value is in the fact that in addition to being 
 short, complete and accurate, it represents the practical side of the man. 
 It portrays the real man." 
 
 Selby, Paul 
 
 "Lincoln's Life Stories and Speeches" — 
 
 Stanton & Van Vliet Company $1.00 
 
 Including stories of Lincoln's early life, stories of Lincoln as lawyer, 
 presidential incidents, stories of the war, etc. The Hon. Paul Selby, 
 personal friend of Lincoln, has written the biography contained in this 
 book. 
 
82 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Sheppard, R. D. 
 
 "The Life of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 Laird & Lee ^O-^S 
 
 Contains the Famous Gettysburg and Springfield Addresses. Pa- 
 thetic Letter to the Mother of Five Sons Slain in Battle, and many 
 well known sayings, characteristics, and chronology of the life of one 
 of America's most famous sons. 
 
 Shirley, R. 
 
 "Short Life of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 Funk & Wagnalls Company $1 . 25 
 
 Short popular life of Lincoln. Gives main facts in his career and a 
 general idea of the struggle he had to carry out his purposes. The 
 voliune contains a few quotations from letters and state documents. 
 
 The author is a Member of Parliament; and his book is one of the 
 recent expressions of England's growing honor for Lincoln. 
 
 Snider, Dr. Denton J. 
 
 "The American Ten Years' War 1855-1865"— 
 
 The William Harvey Miner Company, Inc $2.00 
 
 This book gives the complete historic setting of Lincoln's national 
 career, which was the Civil War in its entirety, lasting not four but ten 
 years from the first Kansas fight till Appomattox. This outline is the 
 History of the Nation in its supreme struggle, showing Lincoln's political 
 environment and opportimity. 
 
 Snider, Dr. Denton J. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln: A Biography" — 
 
 The William Harvey Miner Company, Inc $2. 00 
 
 The present book is a new biographic construction of Lincoln's life, 
 following closely the documents but at the same time keeping before 
 the reader's mind the internal or psychical thread which runs through 
 all the external happenings of Lincoln's varied career. 
 
 Stevens, C. M. 
 
 "The Wonderful Story of Lincoln" — 
 
 Cupples & Leon Company $1 . 25 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 83 
 
 Tarbell, Ida M. 
 
 "Life of Abraham Lincoln" — New revised edi- 
 tion — 
 
 The MacMillan Company. 2 volumes $6.00 
 
 This is a very complete life of Lincoln, remarkable for its presenta- 
 tion of contemporary impression and conmient. A vast amount of 
 intimate personal material was used in the preparation of this work, 
 which aims to depict Lincoln the man, as seen by Ws fellows and revealed 
 by his own acts and words. 
 
 Thompson, David D. 
 
 "Abhaham Lincoln, the First American" — 
 
 Abingdon Press $1.00 
 
 Anecdotes and incidents presenting various phases of Lincoln's life. 
 
 Whipple, Wayne 
 
 "The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 Henry Altemus Company $1 . 26 
 
 Whipple, Wayne 
 
 "The Stort-Life of Lincoln" — 
 
 The John C. Winston Company $2.50 
 
 From every authoritative source has been selected the best-told 
 story of every event in Lincoln's life, arranged in proper order and 
 forming his complete and connected biography from his birth to his 
 martyrdom. The book contains over 500 true stories told by Lincoln 
 or by his friends about him. 
 
 Whipple, Wayne 
 
 "The Heart of Lincoln" — 
 
 George W. Jacobs & Company $0.75 
 
 An intimate study of the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, 
 portrayed in a series of anecdotes and reminiscence sympathetically told. 
 
 Whitlock, Brand 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 Small Mayard & Company $1.00 
 
 Same in (Beacon Biographies) 76 
 
 Through simplicity and directness of style, and emphasis on the 
 human side of Lincoln, the appeal is so direct that younger readers can- 
 not fail to find this a "good book." 
 
84 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 LINCOLN'S WORKS 
 
 Carmiehael, 0. H. 
 
 "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address" illustrated. 
 
 Abingdon Press $1 . 00 
 
 A vivid and historically accurate account of the writing and delivery 
 of that classic of all times. The whole occasion is made to pass in 
 review before us — a thing of life and movement. And those who love 
 and understand are made deeply conscious that in this world-known 
 address Abraham Lincoln revealed the central motive and ideal of his 
 life, and that through it he voiced the message of America to the world. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham 
 
 "Writings of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons. 8 volumes $26.00 
 
 Writings. Including the full text of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates 
 together with the Essay on Lincoln, by Carl Schurz, the Address on 
 Lincoln, by Joseph H. Choate, and the Life of Lincoln, by Noah Brooks. 
 Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley. 
 
 With an Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 Although the works of Lincoln are recognized as deserving a high 
 place in American literature, no previous attempt has been made to 
 present them in a handsome library edition. 
 
 The Writings of Lincoln cover his public addresses, letters, and other 
 documents, together with a large number of more personal letters and 
 speeches. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham 
 
 "Lincoln's Speeches and Writings" — Selections 
 from the public speeches and writings of 
 Abraham Lincoln. Edited by L. E. Chittenden. 
 
 Dodd Mead & Company $1 . SO 
 
 No more valuable contribution to an accurate knowledge of the 
 martyred President could be made than a proper selection from his 
 speeches and writings in a single volume of convenient, readable form. 
 After a thorough study of Mr. Lincoln's intellectual life, from its com- 
 mencement to its close, Mr. Chittenden has prepared such a volume. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham 
 
 "His Autobiography in Facsimile" — 
 
 The Misses Fell $2.50 
 
 Lincoln's brief autobiography was written in 1859, at the request of 
 Jesse W. Fell. His daughters publish this limited edition in facsimile 
 made direct from the original. 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 85 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham 
 
 "Complete Works" — Comprising his speeches, 
 letters, state papers and miscellaneous writings. 
 Edited by his private secretaries, John G. Nico- 
 lay and John Hay — 
 
 The Century Company. 2 volumes $12.00 
 
 This is the story of the martyred President's life written by himself, 
 as found in his speeches, letters, state papers and miscellaneous writings, 
 including his private correspondence; speeches on the stump, in Congress 
 and elsewhere; the great Lincoln-Douglas debates in full; all his messages 
 and proclamations; his letters to generals; all his state papers, memo- 
 randa, etc., prepared from original sources — ^the whole being a complete 
 record of Lincoln's career. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham 
 
 " Gettysburg Oration and First and Second 
 
 Inaugural Addresses" — 
 
 Duffield & Company. Rubric Series $0 . 75 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 
 
 "Speeches" — Including Inaugurals and Proclam- 
 ations. Edited by G. M. Adam — 
 
 A. L. Burt Company. (Burt Home Library) $1 . 25 
 
 This book includes, besides the speeches, inaugurals, addresses, 
 various proclamations and the annual messages to Congress. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham 
 
 "Ideals of the Republic" Series. Inaugural 
 and Gettysburg Addresses — 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons $1.25 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham 
 
 "Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln" 
 from 1882-1865. Edited by Merwin Roe, with 
 an introduction by James Bryce. Everyman's 
 Library — 
 
 E. P. Dutton & Co. Cloth $1.00 
 
 Flexible Leather 2.00 
 
 The object of this volume is to make Lincoln known by his works 
 as he is known to students of history by his deeds. The period covered 
 is from 1832 to 1865. 
 
86 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Lincoln and Douglas 
 
 "Lincoln-Douglas Debates" — 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons $2.50 
 
 The Political Debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. 
 
 Douglas in the Senatorial Campaign of 1858 in Illinois. Introduction 
 
 by George Haven Putnam. 
 
 A definitive and accurate edition of these famous debates which 
 
 paved the way of Lincoln to the Presidency. 
 
 Tracy, G. A. 
 
 "Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln 
 Now First Brought Together, With an 
 Introduction by Ida M. Tarbell" — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company $3.50 
 
 Same, large paper 5 . 00 
 
 A collection of nearly three hundred letters, many of them of decided 
 historical value. "The whole collection is rich in material which will 
 delight the student of Lincoln." — N. Y. Tribune. 
 
 Wanamaker, R. M. 
 
 "The Voice of Lincoln" — 
 
 Charles Scribner's Sons $2. 50 
 
 This book is not so much an exposition of Lincoln's character and 
 genius by another as a revelation of his character and genius by himself. 
 Judge Wanamaker has selected with skill and insight those utterances 
 of Lincoln's, his letters, conversations, and speeches, which are keys to 
 the different sides of his great nature and uncover the springs of his 
 conduct and his greatness of mind and spirit. These utterances are 
 accompanied by a narrative text which supplies a full imderstanding 
 of their biographical and historical significance. 
 
 LINCOLN'S STORIES AND EPIGRAMS 
 
 Gross, Anthony 
 
 "Lincoln's Own Stories" — 
 
 Harper & Brothers $1 . 76 
 
 For many years the author, an enthusiastic student of Lincoln's life, 
 collected and verified the best of the stories told by Lincoln and about 
 Lincoln. These stories have been carefully arranged, and the remarkable 
 collection which is the result is presented in a book of engrossing interest 
 in its humor and pathos, and its illumination of historic characters and 
 events. 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 87 
 
 Hohson, J. T. 
 
 "The Lincoln- Yeae Book" — 
 
 The Otterbein Press $1. i5 
 
 'Das book provides readings for eacb day in the year. For eadb day 
 there is a verse of Scrq>tiire, an extract from some speech or writing of 
 lincoln, and a poetical sdection. The book also contains a complete 
 indes to tlie sdeded bqiics, index to the poetical verses and sdections 
 and to the ScripLure quotations. 
 
 McClwre, Alexander K., LLJ). 
 
 "Lincoln's Ows Yabxs and Stokees" — 
 
 Tie John C. Winston Company $1.50 
 
 In this book are gathoed all the authentic yams, stories, anecdotes, 
 willy sayings and jokes tcdd by Alnaham Lincoln. Tliese stories are 
 full of homdy wit and humor that appeal to evay reader. 
 
 Oldroyd, Osbom H. (CompDer) 
 
 "Words of Ltnoolx" with an introduction by 
 Melville W. Puller, Chief Justice of the United 
 States — 
 
 Osbom H. Oldroyd $1.00 
 
 "Words al Lincoln" is replete with extracts from his doqnent 
 speedies, TnaVing Hie book a valnaUe aid for recitations in sdux^ on 
 annivasaries d linocdn's Urtliday. Alexand^ H. Bice, farmer Govct- 
 nor (£ Massachiis^ts, says: '"Iliey will be, to those who read and 
 remsnber tlifmi, of more "^^ne tiian so many ingots of gold." 
 
 Pratt, Silas G. 
 
 "LiNCOLx lu Stokt" — 
 
 D. Appleton & Company $1.50 
 
 Hie life of Lincoln told in antbenticated anecdote, diranalQ^caDy 
 arranged. A unique and striking pidme of the man stands out in these 
 narratiives. A happy thoo^t, to show him almist, as it weie, at first 
 
 Scott, Temple (Editor) 
 
 "The Wisdom of Abrattam Lincolx" — 
 
 Brentano's $1. 50 
 
 "Hie Wisdom of Abraham linodn" oontains exoezpts from Lincoln's 
 speedies and views. A bo(& ol Linocdn quotations to show hb wisdom. 
 
88 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Whipple, Wayne (Editor) 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln's Don'ts" — Selected and 
 arranged — 
 
 Henry Altemus Company $0.80 
 
 Williams, Henry Llewellyn (Collector and Editor) 
 
 "Lincolnics" — Stories and Sayings — 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons $1.25 
 
 They form a sensible "'constant-companion," a perpetual fount of 
 mirth and wisdom. Many of these anecdotes have won a permanent 
 place in American oratory and humor. 
 
 RELIGION OF LINCOLN 
 
 Barton, William E. 
 
 "The Soul of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 George H. Doran Company $4 . 00 
 
 After a lifetime of devoted study. Dr. Barton has written what may 
 justly be called a definitive account of the ethical convictions and the 
 spiritual life of the great president. He has succeeded in reconstructing 
 an historical setting for the growth of Lincoln's religious ideas, which 
 not only passes the strictest test of known fact, but adds as well several 
 important items to our knowledge of a personality of abiding interest. 
 
 Beardslee, C. S. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits" — 
 
 R. G. Badger Company $2. 00 
 
 Everything regarding Abraham Lincoln is of interest. This study 
 of the religious and moral side of his character takes a line that has not 
 before been followed. It is, therefore, of special interest. 
 
 Grierson, Francis 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln: The Practical Mystic" — 
 
 John Lane Company $1.00 
 
 The careful study given by Mr. Grierson to the life of Lincoln, which 
 resulted in the_ writing of "The Valley of Shadows," will be equally 
 apparent in this present volume, which depicts faithfully the spiritual 
 atmosphere in which Lincoln lived and moved, thought and worked. 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 89 
 
 Hobson, J. T. 
 
 "The Master and His Servant" — 
 
 The Otterbein Press $0.50 
 
 This book contains comparative outline sketches of "The Redeemer 
 of Mankind — Christ, and The Emancipator of a Race — Abraham 
 Lincoln." The aim of the author is to show how the Christ-life is 
 reflected in the life of Lincoln. 
 
 Jackson, S. Trevena 
 
 "Lincoln's Use of the Bible" — 
 
 Abingdon Press. Paper ¥0. Sfi 
 
 A collection of interesting facts, showing the value of the Bible in 
 Lincoln's life. 
 
 Johnson, William J. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln the Christian" — Illustrated. 
 
 Abingdon Press $1 . 60 
 
 This is a careful and painstaking study of the development of Mr. 
 Lincoln's religious life. The study is carried through on chronological 
 lines and is thoroughly well done. The citations are from accredited 
 books and original documents. 
 
 Scovill, Jr., Samuel 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln, His Story" — 
 
 American Sunday-School Union $0.60 
 
 The volume was written with the idea of bringing out the trust in 
 God exhibited by the life and work of this American leader. 
 
 Tarhell, Ida M. 
 
 "In Lincoln's Chair" — 
 
 The MacMillan Company $1.00 
 
 "In Lincoln's Chair" deals particularly with Lincoln's religious 
 views, his attitude toward God, and his consequent sense of responsi- 
 bility and duty. 
 
90 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 LECTURES, ADDRESSES AND MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 Bancroft, George 
 
 "Our Maktte President, Abraham Lincoln" — 
 Oration. (With Bishop Matthew Simpson and 
 R. S Storrs, Jr.)— 
 
 Abingdon Press $1.50 
 
 Every lover of Lincoln will welcome this reissue of the more important 
 addresses delivered in the shadow of the nation's great bereavement. 
 
 Burrage, Henry S. 
 
 "Gettysbtieg and Lincoln" — 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons $1.50 
 
 The records of the Battle, the Park, the Cemetery, and the Lincoln 
 Address. 
 
 Carr, Clarice E. 
 
 "Lincoln at Gettysburg" — 
 
 A. C. McClurg & Company $1.25 
 
 This book, of a little more than a hundred pages, gives a vivid, 
 accurate, and interesting account of the circumstances and events 
 centering about the dedication of "The Soldiers' National Cemetery" 
 at Gettysbiu'g in 1863. It gives the interested reader, as well as the 
 student, an authentic version of the preparation, delivery and reception 
 of the famous Gettysburg Address. 
 
 Carr, Clarke E. 
 
 "Stephen A. Douglas" — 
 
 A. C. McClurg & Company $2.60 
 
 This book, although devoted to a discussion of the noble life and 
 splendid work of Stephen A. Douglas, "The Little Giant," whose name 
 is so prominently linked with that of Abraham Lincoln — contains a fine 
 appreciation of the modest, manly qualities and forensic ability of the 
 martyred President. The last fourteen chapters reveal some very 
 interesting, first-hand pen-pictures of Lincoln and the stirring times 
 beginning with his utterance of the statement "This government cannot 
 endure permanently half slave and half free — it must become all one 
 thing or all the other," and going through the famous Lincoln-Douglas 
 debates to the time when it was solid North against solid South. 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 91 
 
 Choate, Joseph H. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 T. Y. Crowell & Company $0.50 
 
 This is the authorized version of the inaugural address delivered by 
 the American Ambassador at the Court of St. James before the Edin- 
 biu'gh Philosophical Institution on November 13th, 1900. 
 
 Dittenhoefer, A. J. 
 
 "How We Elected Lincoln" — 
 
 Harper & Brothers $0.90 
 
 Herndon, William H. 
 
 "Abeaham Lincoln, Miss Ann Rutledge, New 
 Salem, Pioneeking, and The Poem" — 
 
 H. E. Barker $5. 00 
 
 The lecture that forms the kernel of all the love-stories about IJncoln 
 and Ann Rutledge. A tall, octavo volume, in edition limited to 160 
 signed copies. 
 
 Lamed, J. N. 
 
 "A Study of Greatness in Men" — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company $1.76 
 
 Mr. Larned has made a most enlightening study of the elements of 
 greatness in Napoleon, Cromwell, Washington and Lincoln, and of the 
 degree in which they merit the respect of posterity. His conclusions are 
 unusual and highly interesting. 
 
 Learned, Marion Dexter 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln, An American Migration: 
 Family English Not German" — 
 
 William J. Campbell $2.50 
 
 McLaughlin, Robert W. 
 
 'Washington and Lincoln" — 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons $1.35 
 
 Washington and Lincoln, leaders of the nation in the constitutional 
 
 eras of American history. 
 
 The aim of the writer is to show the similarity of the work they did 
 
 in the field of govenunental action. 
 
92 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Newton, Joseph Fort 
 
 "Lincoln and Herndon" — 
 
 The Torch Press $3.00 
 
 A book that deals with the personal and political fellowship of 
 Abraham Lincoln and his law partner, William H. Herndon. It shows 
 the influence of one upon the other as they worked out together, in the 
 Springfield law office, the solution of the problem that was to rend the 
 nation. 
 
 Oldroyd, Osborn H. 
 
 "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" with 
 an introduction by Bvt. Maj. Gen. T. M. 
 Harris — 
 
 Osborn H. Oldroyd $1.25 
 
 This book is accepted as the true history of the assassination, also of 
 the flight, pursuit, capture, trial and punishment of the conspirators. 
 Contains 82 half-tone illustrations. 
 
 Pillsbury, Albert E. 
 
 "Lincoln and Slavery" — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company $1 . 25 
 
 "With wonderful wit Mr. Pillsbury has portrayed the real Lincoln. 
 
 One cannot easily escape the impression left by the intense 
 
 concentration and literary splendor of this remarkable interpretation." 
 
 Roberts, Octavia 
 
 "Lincoln in Illinois" — Profusely illustrated by 
 Lester G. Hornby — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company. Special limited edition. . . $6 . 00 
 The author of this notable book, a native of Springfield, Illinois, has 
 recently obtained a manuscript diary kept by a neighbor of Lincoln 
 during his Springfield life, which contains many vivid pen pictures of the 
 President. From this material and from her own memories and in- 
 vestigations, she has constructed a most interesting, readable, and 
 illuminating book. 
 
 Robinson, L. E. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln as A Man of Letters" — 
 
 Reilly & Lee Company $1.50 
 
 Professor Robinson's scholarly work is the first book to study Lin- 
 coln's wonderful growth in power of literary expression. The Bible, 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 93 
 
 Shakespeare and Blackstone are shown to have been Lincoln's three great 
 sources of inspiration. The book is rich in references of value to the 
 student. The generous appendix embraces all of the Great Emanci- 
 pator's most famous addresses, letters and state papers. 
 
 Stryker, M. W. 
 
 "Abraham LnsrcoiiN" — 
 
 M. W. Stryker $3.00 
 
 Three addresses given variously. 
 
 Welles, Gideon 
 
 "The Diakt of" — With an introduction by John 
 T. Morse, Jr. — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company. 3 volumes $15.00 
 
 This diary takes us behind the scenes of the crucial decade of our 
 National history. 
 
 Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy in Lincoln's Cabinet, was a 
 keen, clear-sighted, shrewd statesman, with wide experience in public 
 life. Through the intimate pages of his joiu^nal, written day by day in 
 war-time and years after, we get the daily history of the conduct of the 
 war from the point of view of the administration. 
 
 Wilson, Henry 
 
 "Rise and Fall of the Slave Poweb in 
 Ameeica" — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company. 3 volumes $10.00 
 
 "This historical work is of the highest class of that literature to 
 which it belongs, the class, that is to say, which is made up of histories 
 produced by great actors in great events, and it is so in a very special 
 
 Wing, Henry E. 
 
 "When Lincoln Kissed Me" — 
 
 Abingdon Press. Paper $0.85 
 
 This is a short story of the author's adventures as a war correspond- 
 ent. He was selected to get through the enemies' line and carry a 
 message from General Grant to President Lincoln. He succeeded, after 
 a number of thrilling adventures and narrow escapes. 
 
94 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 FICTION 
 
 Altsheler, J. A. 
 
 "In Cikcling Camps" — 
 
 D. Appleton & Company $1.75 
 
 "From the election of Lincoln to the surrender of Lee: Gettysburg 
 is a big battle piece." Baker. 
 
 Andrews, Mary Raymond Shipman 
 
 "The Perfect Tribute" — 
 
 Charles Scribner's Sons. Boards $0.75 
 
 "A wonderful story of Lincoln and his Gettysburg speech, one of 
 the greatest stories of recent years." — N. Y. Times. 
 
 Andrews, Mary Raymond Shipman 
 "The Counsel Assigned" — 
 
 Charles Scribner's Sons. Boards $0.75 
 
 As Mrs. Andrews presented Abraham Lincoln, the President, in her 
 famous "The Perfect Tribute," so now she presents Lincoln, the young 
 Lawyer. She shows him turning his back on a great personal opportu- 
 nity in answer to a request for help from those who had helped him; 
 shows him in court, shrewd, rugged, eloquent, his own ambition sub- 
 merged in the defense of a boy on trial for murder, whose parents had 
 once given him a home. 
 
 Babcock, Bernie 
 
 "The Soul of Ann Rutledge" — 
 
 J. B. Lippincott Company $1.75 
 
 The story of Abraham Lincoln's romantic attachment for Ann Rut- 
 ledge and its moulding power on his after-life is now for the first time 
 adequately told in this remarkable novel. 
 
 Bacheller, Irving A. 
 
 "A Man for the Ages" — 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company $2.00 
 
 Same DeLuxe edition. Boards 5 . 00 
 
 Same DeLuxe edition. Half-Leather 7 . 60 
 
 "A Man tor the Ages is an inspiring sort of book to read, in addition 
 to being interesting: and it does make Abraham Lincoln an approach- 
 able, near-at-hand person.' ' 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 95 
 
 Bacheller, Irving A. 
 
 "Eben Holden: A Tale of the North Coun- 
 try". Popular copyright edition — 
 
 Grosset and Dvinlap $1.00 
 
 A novel of life in the Adirondacks fifty years ago, introducing Horace 
 Greeley and Abraham Lincoln. Interest centers in the faithful old 
 servant, Eben Holden, who is lovingly drawn. Life in the woods and 
 fields is depicted with no little charm. — Baker. 
 
 Bullard, F. L. 
 
 "Tad and His Father"— 
 
 Little Brown & Company $1.00 
 
 A study of the Home Life of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Chittenden, Lucius E. 
 
 "Lincoln and the Sleeping Sentinel" — 
 
 Harper & Brothers $0. 75 
 
 This is the original story. The main incident of it has been told 
 with varying details in many versions. This is the telling of the deed 
 by one who shared in the doing. 
 
 Churchill, Winston 
 
 "The Crisis"— 
 
 The MacMillan Company $2.00 
 
 The Same — ^Popular Copyright Series — 
 
 Grosset & Dunlap 100 
 
 "A painstaking study of the Civil War and its causes (1860-1865) 
 scene chiefly St. Louis. The fierce political movements of the time 
 personified in a representative set of characters. Lincoln, Grant and 
 Sherman appear; while the lovers are a Yankee and a Southern Lady. 
 — Baker. 
 
 Daviess, Maria Thompson 
 "The Matrix"— 
 
 The Century Company $1.76 
 
 A charming, colorful romance of the meeting, the courtship, and the 
 marriage of Abraham Lincoln's father and that almost fabulous figme, 
 Nancy Hanks. 
 
96 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Dixon, Thomas 
 
 "The Southerner: A Romance of the Real 
 Lmcousr" — 
 
 D. Appleton & Company $2.00 
 
 The Same — Popular Copyright Series — 
 
 Grosset & Dunlap 1.00 
 
 A novel that contains as acciu'ate and intimate pictures as have 
 been drawn of the heartrending struggle of Abraham Lincoln to save 
 the nation. In it the humble, lion-hearted man is carried from a bare- 
 foot boy to the White House. Richly dramatic; and the full tragedy 
 of the scene is vividly presented. 
 
 Eggleston, Edward 
 
 "The Gbaysons: A Story of Illinois"— 
 
 The Century Company $1.90 
 
 A detailed picture of the turbulent life of the pioneers, scene, Illinois 
 (about 1850). Abraham Lincoln is introduced as counsel in a murder 
 trial. He convicts the leading witness of perjury, and brings the guilt 
 home to him. — Baker. 
 
 Gerry, Mrs. Margarita Spalding 
 "The Toy-Shop"— 
 
 Harper & Brothers $0.60 
 
 A story of Lincoln. The great man's burdened heart finds comfort 
 in visits to an old toy-maker, and inspiration from a regiment of toys 
 and their modest, firm-standing captain. A wonderful study of Lincoln 
 the man — wise, human, and reverently tender. 
 
 Greene, Homer 
 
 "A Lincoln Conscript" — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company $1 . 75 
 
 A stirring story of a Pennsylvania boy during the Civil War and of 
 the result of the meeting between his father and President Lincoln. 
 
 Grierson, Francis 
 
 "The Valley of Shadows" — 
 
 John Lane Company $1 . 50 
 
 "The Valley of Shadows" deals with those wonderful days in Illinois 
 before the Civil War when the people were preparing to elect Lincoln 
 to the Presidency and a new era was dawning in America. It forms a 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 97 
 
 most remarkable series of memories, full of delicately wrought impres- 
 sions selected and blended with rare literary skill, and has all the move- 
 ment of a fascinating and realistic romance. 
 
 Maule, Mary K. 
 
 "A Prairie-Schooneb Princess" — 
 
 Lothrop, Lee & Shepard $1.76 
 
 Singmaster, Elsie 
 
 "Gettysbtjrg" — 
 
 Houghton Mifflin Company $1.25 
 
 Miss Singmaster has lived all her life in Gettysburg, and she has 
 combined her iatimate knowledge with her gift for powerful narrative 
 to tell not only of soul-stirring events of the actual fight but also many 
 incidents that grew from it in the fifty years aftermath. 
 
 Steiner, Edward A. 
 
 "Uncle Joe's Lincoln" — 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company $1.25 
 
 Few books from Prof. Steiner's facile pen have gripped the American 
 
 heart more than will this true story of his boyhood. 
 
 A true story of delightful episodes that move every patriotic American 
 
 to greater zeal and greater service. 
 
 Tarhell, Ida M. 
 
 "He Knew Lincoln" — 
 
 The MacMillan Company $1.00 
 
 "He Knew Lincoln" portrays the human traits of Lincoln's character. 
 It shows his humor, illustrated in the famous story of the Socks, his 
 great friendliness, and the sorrow and loneltQcss which encompassed 
 him in the midst of his enormous activity, because of the terrible re- 
 sponsibility of his position. 
 
 Tarhell, Ida M. 
 
 "Father Abraham" — 
 
 The MacMillan Company $1.00 
 
 "Father Abraham" depicts Lincoln as the Father of the Union Army, 
 the man who was so interested in the boys in blue that he spent much 
 of his time in associating with them, and knew more of the army than 
 any general. Lincoln's conception of the war and his idea of duty in 
 connection with it are splendidly brought out. 
 
98 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Willsie, Honore 
 
 "Benefits Fohgot" — 
 
 Frederick A. Stokes Company $1 . 00 
 
 "Benefits Forgot." A story of Lincoln and Mother Love. A true 
 story of a young army surgeon, for whose education his mother had 
 made great sacrifices. How President Lincoln learns of the young man's 
 neglect of his mother, and brings him to realize his ingratitude, makes 
 a deeply touching story. 
 
 POETRY AND DRAMA 
 
 Dixon, Thomas 
 
 "A Man of the People" — ^A drama of Abraham 
 Lincoln — 
 
 D. Appleton & Company $1.75 
 
 A forceful picture of harassed, big-hearted and kindly Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Drinkwater, John 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln: A Plat" — with an intro- 
 duction by Arnold Bennett — 
 
 Houghton Miflain Company. Boards $1 . 25 
 
 "We are shown Lincoln just as we should like to imagine him, and 
 as we believe he was — ^rugged, indifferent to appearance, tender-hearted, 
 humorous, sensitive to the feelings of others, and sympathetic with 
 every noble passion; but firm in resolve, and immovable from the line 
 which once he has decided upon as just or magnanimous." — Manchester 
 Ouardian. 
 
 Snider, Dr. Denton J. 
 
 "The Lincolniad" — A National Epos in Four Parts. 
 The William Harvey Miner Company, Inc. 
 
 Here the attempt is made to construe the whole Lincoln as the 
 American hero of the new national Epos in four different, yet inter- 
 related books each of which turns upon a pivotal crisis of his life, wherein 
 is specially emphasized his inner evolution amid the clash of outer 
 events. 
 
 1. Lincoln in the Blackhawk Wak 
 
 The first important round of incidents (in 1832) to which Lincoln 
 himself looked back as formative of his career was the Black Hawk 
 War. Elected Captain, sworn into service by Jefferson Davis, mustered 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 99 
 
 out by Robert Anderson, he fought the Indian: but the deeper conflict 
 then already brewing was the Civil War, whose forecast was the nulli- 
 fication of South Carolina that same year (1832). Here is seen Lincoln's 
 ideal preparation for his future task. The outer landscape is fully 
 depicted — ^the Mississippi river and the Illinois prairie — as well as the 
 frontier people in deed and dialect. 
 Written in free meter and rhyme $2.00 
 
 2. Lincoln and Ann Rtjtledge 
 
 An idyllic poem (in hexametral verse) of Lincoln's one real love — 
 the second great crisis of his life, and his deepest emotional experience, 
 whose sorrow transfigured his soul and whose memory never left him 
 even during the Presidency. Village life of the frontiersman is por- 
 trayed, and the great migration to the Northwest $2.00 
 
 3. Lincoln in the White House 
 
 This epical theme takes up Lincoln in the Civil War till Gettysburg, 
 revealing his inner development through all the war's casualties, until 
 he becomes the supreme national leader of his time. Also a new poetic 
 mythology rises into view to express his peculiar relation to the Upper 
 powers, or the so-called prime movers of history. Also is shown 
 Lincoln's mighty and long-continued wrestle with his fate, here called 
 the Fatal Line, which is drawn between the two contending armies, and 
 which lies also in the Nation. 
 Mainly blank verse with prose scenes $2.00 
 
 4. Lincoln at Richmond 
 
 The triumph of Lincoln over his Fate. His fomiii grand Epoch is 
 his vbit to the Army of the Potomac in its last Campaign, when he 
 crosses the Fatal Line for the first time and enters Richmond, at whose 
 Capitol takes place his last great experience, his so-called Transfigura- 
 tion, which is the final act of his life, his death occurring a few days 
 later. Written in a variety of verse-forms. $2.00 
 
 Waller, Mary E. 
 "OuB Benny"— 
 
 Little Brown & Company $1 . 25 
 
 . A narrative poem, founded on historical fact. The time is March 
 to April, 1865, the place a village in Vermont. The divisions of the 
 work are as follows: 1. The Coming of the Letters. 2. Salus Patriae. 
 3. Hannah and Agatha. 4. Lincoln. 5. Peace. 
 
100 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Whitman, Walt 
 
 "Memories op Pkesident Lincoln and other 
 Ltrics of the War" — 
 
 Thomas B. Mosher $1.00 
 
 Small octavo format (4j^x7) printed on Van Gelder hand-made 
 paper in Caslon 10-point old-style type with Chiswick ornaments, 
 bound in grey boards with white paper labels. Pp. 1-XII: 1-46 colo- 
 phon included. 
 
 Whitman, Walt 
 
 "Memories of President Lincoln" — 
 
 Thomas B. Mosher $5.00 
 
 This edition includes the full text of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, 
 a foreword by Horace Traubel, to which are added selections from Frede- 
 rick W. Lehmann's address, and a short and beautiful appreciation of 
 Lincoln by the editor of the St. Louis Louis Mirror, William Marion 
 Reedy. A selection is also given from John Burroughs as well as the great 
 passage in full from Lowell's Commemoration Ode. 
 
 The text of the poem is printed in 14-point old-style Roman, initial 
 letters in green ink, with head-bands and tail-pieces of becoming dignity. 
 The frontispiece from an original photograph of Lincoln cannot be ex- 
 celled and is the exact size of the original negative. 
 
 Three hundred copies, medium octavo, Italian hand-made paper, 
 old-style olive green Fabriano boards, stamped in color to match, slide 
 
 JUVENILE 
 
 Abbott, J. S. C. 
 
 "Life of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 Stanton & Van Vliet Company $0.50 
 
 A biography of President Lincoln taken from "Abbott's Lives of the 
 Presidents." 
 
 Brooks, Elhridge S. 
 
 "The True Story of Abraham Lincoln" told 
 for Boys and Girls — 
 
 Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company $i8.00 
 
 The book does not talk of war or politics, but tells for young Ameri- 
 cans the real, true, sympathetic, wonderful story of one of the greatest 
 men that ever lived — ^Abraham Lincoln the American. 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 101 
 
 Butterworth, Hezekiah 
 
 "In the Boyhood of Lincoln" — 
 
 D. Appleton & Company $2.00 
 
 The upstanding nature of the boy, and his surroundings amid the 
 pioneer scenes of his youth form absorbing, reading for the boys and 
 girls of today. 
 
 Coffin, C. C. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 Harper & Brothers $2.50 
 
 The author's brilliant power of revivifying the past, his skill in 
 interweaving anecdote with narrative, his ability to present characters 
 without dull description, are placed at their best use in sketching the 
 life and times of the nation's hero. 
 
 Ellias, Edith L. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — :Illustrated — 
 
 Frederick A. Stokes Company $1.50 
 
 A readable account of the life of Lincoln, told vividly and accurately 
 in a way to interest young readers. 
 
 Gordy, W. F. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — Illustrated — 
 
 Charles Scribner's Sons $1.00 
 
 The Same — School edition — 
 
 Charles Scribner's Sons $0.92 
 
 A delightful biography of the "First Great American" for girls and 
 boys by a man who has for years been writing successfully for young 
 people. Mr. Gordy has for many years been collecting the materials 
 for this book and has put his heart into the writing of it. 
 
 Hamilton, Mary A. 
 
 "The Story of Abraham Lincoln" — "Children's 
 Heroes" series — 
 
 E. P. Dutton & Company $1.00 
 
 This dainty book is designed for children from eight to ten,_ who are 
 just making friends with great characters of history. Will prove 
 an incentive to further reading. 
 
102 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Mace, W. H. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln: The Man of the People" — 
 
 Rand McNally & Company $0.60 
 
 In "Abraham Lincoln, the Man of the People," the latest volume 
 in the series of "Little Lives of Great Men," Professor Mace has written 
 a sympathetic biography that will go straight to the hearts of children. 
 Like the other books of the series, it was written with the child in view, 
 and presents those sides of the great man's life which find their counter- 
 part in the life of every boy. 
 
 Mason, Alfred Bishop 
 
 "Tom Strong, Lincoln's Scout" — 
 
 Henry Holt & Company $1 . 60 
 
 This is the story of the fourth Tom Strong, who finds himself at the 
 White House as an older chum of Lincoln's son. The President soon 
 finds use for Tom in his country's service, and he becomes an actor in 
 the most stirring events of the Civil War. It is a gripping story for 
 boys, developed against an historically accurate background. 
 
 Moores, C. W. 
 
 "The Life of Lincoln foe Boys and Girls" — 
 
 Houghton Miffin Company $1.35 
 
 Morgan, James 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln, the Boy and the Man" — 
 
 The MacMillan Company $2.00 
 
 The Same — Popular Copyright Edition — 
 
 Grosset & Dunlap $1.00 
 
 This book is intended for younger readers. It is an authoritative 
 account of the life of Lincoln, but lays special stress on the personal 
 interest, being especially rich in anecdotes. 
 
 Nicolay, Helen 
 
 "The Boy's Life of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 The Century Company $1 . 75 
 
 Based on the great Nicolay and Hay history. A vivid and inspiring 
 narrative for all young Americans. In choice of incident and event, 
 in accuracy, in sympathy, in vivid interest, it stands as an ideal life of 
 Lincoln for young people. 
 
A Bihliogra'phy of Books in Print [ 103 
 
 Putnam, Harriet 
 
 "Life of Abraham Lincoln for Young People" — 
 Written in one-syllable words. 
 
 McLaughlin Brothers $1.00 
 
 Putnam, M. Louise 
 
 "The Children's Life of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 A. C. McClurg & Company $1.50 
 
 This book, in the opinion of the publishers, provides, at the present 
 time, the best available account of the life of the beloved President 
 for children from ten to fifteen years of age. It is written in a very 
 instructive and inspirational style, and is replete with pictures that 
 delight children. 
 
 Sparhawk, Frances S. 
 
 "Life of Lincoln for Boys" — 
 
 T. Y. Crowell Company $1.50 
 
 Out of a mass of recently discovered material the present author , 
 a weU-known writer, has woven a story replete with life and interest. 
 
 Stoddard, William 0. 
 
 "Long Bridge Boys" — 
 
 Lothrop, Lee & Shepard $1.50 
 
 A story of '61 introducing Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Stoddard, William 0. 
 "The Boy Lincoln" — 
 
 D. Appleton & Company $1.75 
 
 This is an absorbing, forceful account of the early days of Abraham 
 Lincoln, when he was a boy living on the frontiers. 
 
 Wheeler, Daniel E. 
 
 "True Stories of Great Americans; Abraham 
 Lincoln" — 
 
 The MacMillan Company $1.00 
 
 This is a complete and acciu-ate life of Lincoln, prepared especially 
 for younger readers. It presents all the important historical facts of 
 Lincoln's career, as well as much personal matter, but is brief and 
 admirably suited to either home or school reading for children. 
 
104 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 TRIBUTES TO LINCOLN 
 
 Davis, Mary Wright 
 
 "The Book of Lincoln" — 
 
 George H. Doran Company $3.00 
 
 A collection of the tributes of the world to Lincoln. In many 
 respects the best book of its kind. Suitable for a gift. 
 
 Oldroyd, Osborn H. 
 
 "Lincoln Memobial Album" — 
 
 Osborn H. Oldroyd $2.50 
 
 Contains the reminiscences and recollections of 200 of the contemp- 
 oraries of Lincoln. Men who knew him through life. 
 
 Mr. Oldroyd is custodian of the "Lincoln House" in Washington, 
 where the great President died; and has been for many years a careful 
 collector of Lincoln material. 
 
 Oldroyd, Osborn H. (Compiler) 
 
 "The Poets' Lincoln" — With an introduction by 
 
 Marion Mills Millei-— 
 
 Osborn H. Oldroyd $1.00 
 
 A collection of tributes by the poets of the world to Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Williams, Dallas A. 
 
 "The Peaise of Lincoln" — 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company $2.00 
 
 An anthology of verse written to and about Abraham Lincoln, 
 containing 102 poems. With an introduction by Thomas R. Marshall, 
 Vice-President of the United States. 
 
 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY EXERCISES, ETC. 
 
 Barnard, George Grey 
 
 "Barnard's Lincoln" — 
 
 Stewart & Kidd Company $0.75 
 
 The Creation and Dedication of George Grey Barnard's Statue of 
 Abraham Lincoln, which stands in Lytle Park, Cincinnati. The 
 Dedication delivered by the Hon. Wm. Howard Taft. Etching of the 
 statue by E. T. Hurley. Seven full-page illustrations. 80 pages. 
 Printed on cameo paper. 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 105 
 
 Faxon, Grace B. (Compiler) 
 
 "Pieces and Plays fob Lincoln's Bihthdat" — 
 
 Hall & McCreary Company. Paper $0. 36 
 
 Cloth 75 
 
 Contains 125 selections, including recitations, acrostics, Lincoln 
 verses for familiar tunes, quotations from Lincoln, anecdotes of Lincoln. , 
 Lincoln epigrams, programs and a collection of dialogues and plays, etc. 
 
 Fowler, H. A. (Editor) 
 
 "LlNCOLNIANA BoOK PlATES AND COLLECTIONS" 
 
 Four Seas Company. Boards $2.60 
 
 Langdon, W. C. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln Today" — 
 
 The University of Illinois Press $0.60 
 
 Being the complete program and text of the Lincoln day convoca- 
 tion at the University of Illinois, 1918, with addresses by President 
 Edmund J. James and Captain Fernand Baldensperger, of the French 
 Army. Illustrated by two rare photographs of Lincoln, the Travers 
 portrait and the Lambert ambrotype and by photographs of the speakers 
 and the convocation groups. 
 
 "Lincoln's Birthday "Exercises fob the 
 School-Room" — ^Teacher's Helps Series — 
 
 Educational Publishing Company. Pamphlet $0 . 24 
 
 Mawson, Agnes 
 
 "WiNNOWINGS FOB LiNCOLN's BiBTHDAy" 
 
 D. Appleton & Company $0.80 
 
 Selections from Lincoln's speeches, his favorite poems, beautiful 
 thoughts about him, etc. The material is collected with a view to its 
 suitability for use in conunemoration of Lincoln's birthday, and to 
 cultivate a fuller appreciation of the strength and beauty of his char- 
 acter. Divided into two parts, for grammar and high schools, and 
 anecdotes for little folk. 
 
 Oldroyd, Osborn H. 
 
 "Pbogram of Exercises for the AiStniversary 
 OF Lincoln's Birthday" — 
 
 Osborn H. Oldroyd Pamphlet $0. 10 
 
 Contains: "The Boyhood of Lincoln;" "Brief Sketch of the Life 
 of Abraham Lincoln;" "What Made Lincoln Great;" "Lincoln as a 
 Humorist;" "Recitations;" "Gettysburg Address;" twenty numbers in 
 all. 
 
106 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Sindelar, J. C. 
 
 "Lincoln Day Entertainments" — 
 
 A. Flanagan Company. Paper $0.40 
 
 The best and most complete book of entertainments for this occa- 
 sion. The readings and recitations are both original and selected; the 
 plays and dialogues, drills, pantomimes, and tableaux are all new. 
 For all grades. 
 
 SCHOOL TEXT BOOKS 
 
 Baldwin, James 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — (For Sixth Year). 
 
 American Book Company $0.72 
 
 This thrilling story of the most American of all our Presidents is 
 much more than an ordinary biography. It traces briefly the progress 
 of our government from the time of \\s organization to the end of the 
 great Civil War, and it makes plain the causes and motives which 
 brought about the tremendous crisis. Considerable space is given to 
 Lincoln's boyhood and youth, but the book is free from wearisome 
 details, as well as from political bias or sectional prejudice. 
 
 Baldvnn, James 
 
 "Four Great Americans: Washington, 
 Franklin, Webster, Lincoln" — (For Fourth 
 Year)— 
 
 American Book Company $0.64 
 
 The story of Abraham Lincoln is simply and interestingly told in 
 the last 66 pages of this book. Some of the chapter headings are: 
 The Kentucky Home; School and Books; Life in the Backwoods; The 
 First Years in Illinois; etc., etc. 
 
 Bergold, Lilian C. (Editor) 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 Educational Publishing Company $0.50 
 
 A collection of authentic stories, with poems, songs and programs 
 for boys, girls, and teachers of elementary schools. 
 
A Bibliography of Books in Print [ 107 
 
 Draper, Andrew S. (Editor) 
 
 "Lincoln Selections" — (Gateway Series). 
 
 American Book Company $0. 52 
 
 This volume gives in the introduction so much of Lincoln's life as 
 seems necessary to recall to the reader's mind the setting of his ad- 
 dresses and state papers. It contains in addition to the graver and 
 more stately public addresses which are best known, several more 
 informal addresses, with which the people are much less familiar, and 
 a considerable number of letters, of which by far the greater number 
 of people know nothing at all. 
 
 Gaston, Charles R. (Editor) 
 
 "Lincoln's Address at Coopek Institute and 
 Macaulat's Speeches on Copyright" — 
 Edited with Introduction and Notes. (Stand- 
 ard English Classics) — 
 
 Ginn & Company $0. 4i 
 
 Contains complete address as delivered on February 27, 1860. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham 
 
 "Emancipation Proclamation" — (Riverside 
 Literature Series) — 
 
 Houghton MiflBin Company. Paper $0.28 
 
 Moores, Chas. W. (Editor) 
 
 "Lincoln — ^Addresses and Letters" — (Eclectic 
 English Classics) — 
 
 American Book Company $0. 40 
 
 In the preparation of this collection of the writings of Abraham 
 Lincoln the editor has had in mind the chief value which it should 
 possess for the reader. That value is to be found in the revelation 
 which his writings give of the personality of one of the greatest public 
 characters in all Instory. So those speeches and letters have been 
 chosen which reveal the most of the man, Lincoln. With this in view, 
 the notes are meant to explain the man and the occasion, and with the 
 letters give such information as will enable the reader to understand 
 better why the letters were written and who Lincoln's correspondents 
 
108 ] Abraham Lincoln and His Books 
 
 Tarbell, Ida M. (Editor) 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — Selections from the 
 Letters, Speeches and State Papers of Abraham 
 Lincoln. Edited with Introduction and Notes. 
 (Standard English Classics) — 
 
 Ginn & Company $0. 48 
 
 Contains 40 selections which date from 1832 when Lincoln made 
 his first public address (Views on Money-Loaning, Education, and 
 Lawmaking) to 1865 when he made his last speech (The Reconstruction 
 of the Southern States). Offers his views on education, politics, slavery, 
 labor and capital, proclamation, letters, messages, etc. 
 
 Thomas, Isaac (Editor) 
 
 "The Words of Abraham Lincoln" — 
 
 American Book Company $0 . 76 
 
 The main purpose of this book is to put within the reach of our 
 youth a. collection of Lincoln's words which, in themselves, will be a 
 source of inspiration to all that read them and will serve as models of 
 good English to the schools, and to make known his words as they 
 ought to be known by all good Americans. 
 
 Wade, Mary Hazelton 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln" — (Little Folk's Play of 
 American Heroes) — 
 
 R. G. Badger Company $0 . 75 
 
 In simple form, and presenting the heroes in successive periods of 
 development, it enables the child to read and act out their lives at one 
 and the same time, entering into the great man's thoughts and feelings 
 as they conquer every obstacle and become at last "great." 
 
N