I picked up this book that was published in Chicago, June 1,1894 for $15 at the Goodwill in Fletcher, close to Smiley's Flea-market. Considering hardcovers are normally $1.75 at Goodwill (last time I checked), it was expensive.

Mine has a bit of spine wear, the cover-page is loose, and while I was reading it, little flakes of paper kept...flaking off. It has some beautiful headings and is illustrated throughout. It must have been damned hard work printing books in the Nineteenth Century... While reading I noticed tons of misspellings and grammatical errors, many of which had been corrected by pencil. I'm reminded of some joke about publishing a perfect book, and then they find the title is misspelled...

Now, this is truly an entertaining book, and it was my first Lincoln book that I have read. It is filled with little "told episodes" of Lincoln's life along with some of his speeches. It moves chronologically from youth to assassination, burial, et cetera.

One thing is for sure—they don't call Lincoln "Honest Abe" for nutt'n. As a boy he had borrowed "Weems' Life of Washington', it rained on it, and Lincoln insisted on "Pulling Fodder" to repay the book owner. It would seem Lincoln was influenced mightily by the books he read as a youth—you might even say he lived them out. Besides the aforementioned Lincoln read 'AEsop's Fables', 'Pilgrim's Progress', 'Life of Henry Clay' (which his mother managed to purchase for him), 'Life of Franklin', and 'Ramsey's Life of Washington', along with the constant influence of the Holy Bible. The alchemy of these, along with the incident of a young girl's death forged Lincoln's character. In his lawyer years, he makes Matlock look like a dirty thieving scoundrel.

The book almost seems a piece of hero-worship. By far, the most impressive is Lincoln's own words given in his speeches. Thirty one of them are included, "The Emancipation Proclamation" being the final one. Amazing stuff. ( )

Lincoln's prose is always excellent.