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+--- Thread: That Nation Might Live (/thread-2996.html)
That Nation Might Live - Gene C - 05-15-2016 09:35 PM
by Jeff Oppenheimer, copyright 2014, about 150 pages
Excellent book!
The setting is two rocking chairs in front of a well fed fire in Mrs. Lincoln's prairie cabin home.
His longtime friend and law partner, William H. Herndon, interviewed Lincoln's step-mother, Sara in preparation for a biography of the martyred President. She tells Herndon about the life of Lincoln as no one else can. Not as mere facts but a mother sharing ten personal stories about her son. Based on Herndon's notes and other first hand accounts, Oppenheimer combines this into an authentic narrative with a touch for the frontier life. It's like your there watching and listening to the conversation.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A new, softbound copy, is a little over $3
http://www.amazon.com/That-Nation-Might-Live-Stepmother/dp/1497538777/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463360364&sr=1-1&keywords=that+nation+might+live
RE: That Nation Might Live - RJNorton - 05-16-2016 04:56 AM
This sounds fascinating, Gene. Thanks for posting.
RE: That Nation Might Live - Eva Elisabeth - 05-16-2016 06:38 AM
Gene - how fictional is it? Despite the "rocking frame story" still in line with history?
RE: That Nation Might Live - Gene C - 05-16-2016 07:00 AM
.
Very in line with history.
.
RE: That Nation Might Live - Eva Elisabeth - 05-17-2016 07:31 AM
Thanks, Gene - sounds good!
RE: That Nation Might Live - Gene C - 11-13-2017 08:43 PM
I am re-reading this book. One of the things I liked about it are some of the quaint old fashioned sayings, at least I think they were some-what from the time period of the early 1800's. The book is about Herndon's interview with Sarah Lincoln, Abraham's step-mother.
In describing the crowded wagon they rode on Sarah remembers, "Between all of us and the property, there wasn't room to cuss a cat without getting fur in your mouth."
"If a man'd been doing anything low down, Abe'd make him feel meaner than a suck-egg dog about it."
Johnny Cash even wrote a song about a Dirty Old Egg Sucking Dog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYNK8A_bXwA
And this one, "God selects unpromising cradles for his greatest and best servants."