Abe Lincoln Laughing

[Rob Wick]

When Carl Sandburg first approached Alfred Harcourt about writing a book on Lincoln, he wanted to write a biography for children, saying he wanted a book on Lincoln that he could have read as a young boy in Galesburg, Illinois. It was only later that Sandburg and Harcourt realized that Abraham Lincoln The Prairie Years was not going to be a children's book.

After the success of The Prairie Years, Harcourt took the first 27 chapters of the book and turned it into a book called Abraham Lincoln Grows Up. Interestingly, the chapters were reprinted verbatim from The Prairie Years. Harcourt saw no need to "dumb down" the book for children.

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Rob