Ghosts of Lincoln

[Gene C]

Full title, Ghosts of Lincoln: Discovering His Paranormal Legacy.
Written by Adam Selzer, copyright 2015, with 301 pages of text. No index, but 25 pages of endnotes and bibliography.

This book turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would be.
The author treats the subject seriously and with skepticism. He examines the history and circumstances of the ghost stories, spiritualism and seances, Lincoln's dreams, and superstitions of the times.

From the Amazon web page
"Abraham Lincoln is one of the most haunted―and haunting―presidents in US history. Sightings of Lincoln’s ghost, as well as the ghost of his assassin, have been reported for more than 150 years. Visited by eerie premonitions, morbid dreams, and unusual events that seem too bizarre to be coincidence, Lincoln has become the source of dozens of myths and paranormal mysteries.

Investigating everything from obscure séance transcripts and nearly forgotten newspaper articles to the most peculiar paranormal claims, Ghosts of Lincoln digs deep into the annals of history and reveals the fascinating true stories behind the tales, rumors, and lore."

The stories behind the tales, rumor and lore may be true, but the tales, rumors and lore themselves were full of fraud, deception, and unreliable sources. I found the chapters about spiritualism and the seances the most interesting. One of the seances that Mrs Lincoln and allegedly President Lincoln attended, had a "dancing" and levitating piano. These and other events are recorded in the mediums (Nettie Colburn Maynord's) own book, "Was Abraham Lincoln A Spiritualist?"
https://archive.org/details/wasabraham00...7/mode/2up

There are several ghost stories about Lincoln, his funeral train, tomb, and sightings at the White House. In addition there is a chapter on the ghost of Booth and the conspirators.
Mr. Selzer debunks most of the claims of paranormal activity mentioned in this book. Here is the Amazon web site

https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Lincoln-Di...429&sr=1-4

This book presents an interesting look at the "paranormal legacy" of Lincoln. So if your interested in the less talked about, off the beaten path, non-traditional study of Lincoln, this may be the book for you.