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LincolnMan · 03-20-2019, 07:55 AM

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?

Gene C · 03-20-2019, 08:54 AM

2. Aesop's Fables
3. Weem's, Life of George Washington
4. Samuel Kirkham’s English Rules of Grammar

RJNorton · 03-20-2019, 09:00 AM

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

GustD45 · 03-20-2019, 09:17 AM

I think Shakespear's Hamlet might be one of the plays Lincoln read. Sorry if this didn't fit the list.

davg2000 · (This post was last modified: 03-20-2019 12:57 PM by davg2000.)

I think he liked anything by Shakespeare but especially Macbeth.

RJNorton · 03-20-2019, 02:54 PM

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."

AussieMick · (This post was last modified: 03-20-2019 04:42 PM by AussieMick.)

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

LincolnMan · 03-23-2019, 08:09 PM

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.

RJNorton · 03-24-2019, 04:05 AM

(03-23-2019 08:09 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.

LincolnMan · 03-24-2019, 06:11 AM

(03-24-2019 04:05 AM)RJNorton Wrote:
(03-23-2019 08:09 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!