According to Herndon, Lincoln never read Darwin's
Origin book, although through Herndon he had access to it. Herndon wrote "Occasionally he would snatch one up and peruse it for a little while, but he soon threw it down with the suggestion that it was entirely too heavy for an ordinary mind to digest." Lincoln did read a book by
Robert Chambers called
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation which Chambers published anonymously. It predated Darwin by about 15 years. Joshua Wolf Shenk used this to argue that Lincoln could have been considered an evolutionist, although William E. Barton argued (as did Chambers later) that there was no discrepancy in
Vestiges between evolution and religion.
The Smithsonian published in 2009 an article on Lincoln and Darwin, although it gets the title of Herndon's book wrong.
Almost forgot to mention that in 2010
Southern Illinois University Press published James Lander's
Lincoln and Darwin: Shared Visions of Race, Science and Religion. I have it, but haven't read it yet.
Best
Rob
Lincoln's Christianity by Michael Burkhimer
