Lincoln Talks - An Oral Biography

[Gene C]

compiled and edited by Emanuel Hertz and printed in 1939

Hertz takes a slightly different approach to this collection of 1,000 stories about Lincoln. In the introduction Hertz states
"But this work, too, is a biography, though not in the ordinary sense. It pretends to be no more than a kaleidoscopic presentation of a thousand and one living incidents in Lincoln's career, told by a thousand eyewitnesses. Precisely, however, because each anecdote has come to us refracted through a different point of view, hope that in their totality all personal equations will have canceled one another out, "corrected" each other, as the scientists say; and that thus we may possibly approach closer to an objective portrait of Lincoln than we could have done by following the guidance of any one man.

Each of these contemporaries naturally treasured his rare moment of contact with Lincoln; I feel, therefore, that their combined testimony offers an opportunity for the expression of as fresh,spontaneous, and urgent a vitality as any one writer might be expected to maintain.

...as I have already indicated, the richest source of these materials, which I have been collecting for twenty years, has been the contemporary press. Here for a host of people was set down their single claim to the attention of posterity—they had talked with Lincoln! And here, as a consequence,we find an incomparable picture of Lincoln in action—wheedling juries, receiving delegations, granting pardons, turning away office- seekers, placating his wife, thinking out loud about national problems, quarreling with his secretaries, correcting his children, being wise or witty, indignant or peace-loving. Here Lincoln smiles and weeps, and talks.

A noble objective, but in these short (many less than a page long) remembrances are several which seem to have no point to them at all, just a personal contact with Lincoln that they treasured because it happened to them. That made it special and they felt it was worth repeating.

Hertz didn't seem to feel accuracy was important in these stories, he just copied what others had written down. In doing so, he has recorded incidences, real, imagined or exaggerated, that add to the mystery and legend of Lincoln. At over 650 pages of text, for me there is too much here. As a result of all this, I can't recommend this book. There are several other collections of short stories about Lincoln that I think are better. After several months I still haven't finished reading it. It's to easy to put this book down and pick it back up if you just want to read a page or two. I've read over 500 pages. It's unlikely I will pick this up again and try to read it cover to cover.

I don't regret purchasing this book (used, very good, for $5.48) Several short stories I've made a note of and will share with you.
It's also available on Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/lincolntalks...3/mode/2up