Abe's Wit And Wisdom

[RJNorton]

Eva, I do not have that book, but I found where the author says, "Almost all the designated “remarks” should be taken as second-hand, but for the most part I have used those recorded by his personal secretaries or by those witnesses deemed fairly reliable. To help me sort out facts from fiction I have depended on the expertise of a handful of the twentieth- and twenty-first century scholars who most thoroughly know Lincoln’s views and character: Roy Basler, David Herbert Donald, Don E. Fehrenbacher, Harold Holzer, and Paul M. Zall. The source for the majority of the quotations is the Abraham Lincoln Association’s The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln."

Based on that I would think Blaisdell's book would be far superior in accuracy than Ayres' book. Ayres does not give sources for some of the quotes in his book. For some others he simply lists the source as "Attributed." And for certain others he does include a legitimate source. There is no consistency.

Regarding Lincoln's stories, Abe Lincoln Laughing: Humorous Anecdotes from Original Sources by and about Abraham Lincoln edited by Paul M. Zall is among the best researched and most accurate of all books in that category.