Books that Lincoln read...

[AussieMick]

David Donald writes that Lincoln read Thomas Paine's Age of Reason and also 'probably' some of Ruins of Civilizations by Constantin de Volney.

I'm sure that I've also read that he was, as young man/boy, an avid reader of what I'd call 'joke books' and possibly risque material which he'd read to Dennis Hanks and others. Sorry, I can't recall where I read this. But it does seem highly likely.

I know that this thread is about books. But I have just come across reference to the "Nasby Letters" by journalist David Ross Locke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ross_Locke .

"Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner deemed Locke the president's ‘favorite humorist’ (p. 79). Sumner's experience was hardly atypical. Lincoln kept Locke's pamphlets in his office and frequently read them to visitors, including to leading politicians and members of his cabinet who came on urgent business."
https://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/2255


He also read/used Barclay's English Dictionary according to Dennis Hanks.
http://www.gwyneddmeeting.org/history/dennis_hanks.htm