Things Lincoln never said

[Linda Anderson]

Thanks, Bill.

Mr. McPherson explains the Fehrenbachers' grading system in his review of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln compiled and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher. The review, which can be found in The Atlantic Online, is titled "Lincoln Speaks."

"The Fehrenbachers assign each quotation a letter grade as a guide to its authenticity. Most direct quotations recorded within days of their utterance earn an A; similar indirect quotations (summaries or paraphrases of Lincoln's words) earn a B. Most direct or indirect quotations written down weeks or years later earn a C. These grades, the editors write, are 'classificatory' but obviously have 'evaluative implications.' Common sense, along with scholarly research on memory, tells us that observations or quotations recorded soon after the fact are more reliable than those filtered through the haze of memory. Thus quotations assigned an A or a B are as a general rule more authentic than those given a C.

"There are a good many exceptions, however, and some contemporary as well as many later quotations earn a D or an E owing to their implausibility, the known or suspected unreliability of the recorder, factual errors or inconsistencies in the quotation or its context, or the secondhand nature of the quotation. A quotation 'about whose authenticity there is more than average doubt' gets a D; a quotation 'that is probably not authentic' earns an E."

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/iss...incoln.htm