With Malice Towards None

[Gene C]

Written by Stephen Oates in 1977

A nice, one volume biography of Abraham Lincoln with about 450 pages of text.
Easy to read, flows well. Was a bit light on footnotes. He made a couple of statements that I wanted to see what his source was, but there was not a footnote to tell me.

Here are a few statements from the book that were of somewhat questionable or special interest.

- Incapable of even writing her name, Nancy Hanks signed legal documents with her mark.
- For some reason, Dennis took a disliking to Thomas Lincoln and later falsely characterized him as a slow and shiftless oaf who neglected his family.
- Tall, straight, and light skinned, Sally (Sara) could not write, and probably could not read either.
- Sometime that summer or winter (1828) Lincoln began hanging around the log courthouse in Rockport and Boonville. It was all very exciting to him, a challenging new world that made his adrenaline flow. He was so thrilled, in fact, that he borrowed and read the Revised Statues of Indiana. He also studied the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, observing as he did how frequently Indiana lawyers referred to them.
- it was in a murder trial that Lincoln won his first courtroom victory: he helped secure the acquittal of a Democrat who shot a rival in self-defense.
- Thanks to those rough Globe Tavern days, she (Mary) became terrified of poverty, obsessed with it.

There are several more...

I was able to find an adequate hard copy at the Library Book Sale for $1.
On line bookstores have a much higher price for a decent used hard copy.
A new soft cover is reasonably priced at under $15 (incl. S&H).