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+--- Thread: Books that Lincoln read... (/thread-3999.html)
Books that Lincoln read... - LincolnMan - 03-20-2019
I’m seem to be in a “list” mode-so forgive me. What books did Lincoln read- and had an influence on him? The first book that comes to my mind is:
01. The King James Bible
Others?
RE: Books that Lincoln read... - Gene C - 03-20-2019
2. Aesop's Fables
3. Weem's, Life of George Washington
4. Samuel Kirkham’s English Rules of Grammar
RE: Books that Lincoln read... - RJNorton - 03-20-2019
Arabian Nights
The Life of Benjamin Franklin
Pilgrim's Progress
Robinson Crusoe
The Life of Francis Marion
The Bible
Lessons in Elocution
Dilworth's Spelling Book
The Kentucky Preceptor
The Columbian Class Book
RE: Books that Lincoln read... - GustD45 - 03-20-2019
I think Shakespear's Hamlet might be one of the plays Lincoln read. Sorry if this didn't fit the list.
RE: Books that Lincoln read... - davg2000 - 03-20-2019
I think he liked anything by Shakespeare but especially Macbeth.
RE: Books that Lincoln read... - RJNorton - 03-20-2019
Despite Lincoln's seeming reputation as a reader, Herndon chimed in as follows:
"Beyond a limited acquaintance with Shakespeare, Byron and Burns, Mr. Lincoln, comparatively speaking, had no knowledge of literature. He was familiar with the bible, and now and then evidenced a fancy for some poem or short sketch to which his attention was called by someone else, or which he happened to run across in his cursory reading of books or newspapers. He never in his life sat down and read a book through, and yet he could readily quote any numbers of passages from the few volumes whose pages he had hastily scanned."
RE: Books that Lincoln read... - AussieMick - 03-20-2019
David Donald writes that Lincoln read Thomas Paine's Age of Reason and also 'probably' some of Ruins of Civilizations by Constantin de Volney.
I'm sure that I've also read that he was, as young man/boy, an avid reader of what I'd call 'joke books' and possibly risque material which he'd read to Dennis Hanks and others. Sorry, I can't recall where I read this. But it does seem highly likely.
I know that this thread is about books. But I have just come across reference to the "Nasby Letters" by journalist David Ross Locke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ross_Locke .
"Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner deemed Locke the president's ‘favorite humorist’ (p. 79). Sumner's experience was hardly atypical. Lincoln kept Locke's pamphlets in his office and frequently read them to visitors, including to leading politicians and members of his cabinet who came on urgent business."
https://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/2255
He also read/used Barclay's English Dictionary according to Dennis Hanks.
http://www.gwyneddmeeting.org/history/dennis_hanks.htm
RE: Books that Lincoln read... - LincolnMan - 03-23-2019
Was it just my fancy or did he also read The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon? I think I read that he did so once-but not sure.
RE: Books that Lincoln read... - RJNorton - 03-24-2019
(03-23-2019, 09:09 PM)LincolnMan Wrote: Was it just my fancy or did he also read The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon? I think I read that he did so once-but not sure.
In a letter to Herndon (May 30, 1865), William G. Greene said he loaned 'Gibbons histories' to Lincoln. This would have been during the New Salem years.
RE: Books that Lincoln read... - LincolnMan - 03-24-2019
(03-24-2019, 05:05 AM)RJNorton Wrote:(03-23-2019, 09:09 PM)LincolnMan Wrote: Was it just my fancy or did he also read The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon? I think I read that he did so once-but not sure.
In a letter to Herndon (May 30, 1865), William G. Greene said he loaned 'Gibbons histories' to Lincoln. This would have been during the New Salem years.
Ah ha! So my mind isn’t totally gone! Thank you Roger!