The Frontier Years of Abe Lincoln

[Gene C]

by Richard Kigel. The full title is, "The Frontier Years of Abraham Lincoln: In the Words of His Friends and Family"
Since I purchased this book I found there is an expanded and updated version titled "My Childhood's Home:
Growing Up With Young Abe Lincoln. It appears to have 5 additional chapter including one about Ann Rutledge
http://younglincoln.com/lincoln.html

I can recommend either one. Mine was a hardback copy I got for $.04,
The updated version is a softbound or ebook and a little more $8.75.

The focus is on the early years up through New Salem (not much about Ann Rutledge in my older copy). Good footnotes. He does a good job of combining the different resources into an interesting account of Lincoln's early life.

Knowing what I know now, I would probably spend the extra $ to get the new version, even though it's softcover.

http://www.amazon.com/My-Childhoods-Home...8&qid=&sr=

or http://www.amazon.com/Frontier-Years-Abe...ars+of+abe

either way it is a good book about Lincoln's early years.

I did learn that Denton Offutt, Lincoln's outspoken, wheeler dealer employer on one of his flatboat trips to New Orleans and as a store clerk, kind of disappears after the store fails. He turns up in Baltimore several years later in the 1850's as a horse trainer, an early version of the Horse Whisperer, "advertising himself in the city papers as a veterinary surgeon and horse tamer, professing to have a secret to whisper in the horse's ear...by which the most... vicious horse could be quieted and controlled." He also published a book in 1860 titled, "The Educated Horse". I'd like to find a copy of that, but so far no luck.

[RJNorton]

Thanks, Gene. Richard Kigel wrote me about his book back in 2006. Here is a description he sent at that time:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“MY CHILDHOOD’S HOME” tells the real story of how a great American hero grew up and became a man. The story begins before Abe was born as his cousin describes the murder of Abe’s grandfather in 1782 by the Wabash Indians in the Kentucky wilderness. It ends as Lincoln turns twenty-five, downcast and debt-ridden after the failure of his first business venture, he earns his first election victory to take his seat in the Illinois State legislature.

Here is a vivid authentic account of Abraham Lincoln in his formative years, the real story told by those who were there, his friends and family. It is biography at its purest, all the intimate details told by flesh and blood men and women who say what they saw and heard, just as it happened. Supported by rigorous research, meticulously annotated and featuring the most recent Lincoln scholarship, this historic eyewitness testimony forms a rich vivid narrative unmatched in all Lincoln literature. Here is Lincoln as he was, said law partner Billy Herndon, “just as he lived, breathed, ate and laughed in this world”.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I did learn that Denton Offutt, Lincoln's outspoken, wheeler dealer employer on one of his flatboat trips to New Orleans and as a store clerk, kind of disappears after the store fails. He turns up in Baltimore several years later in the 1850's as a horse trainer, an early version of the Horse Whisperer, "advertising himself in the city papers as a veterinary surgeon and horse tamer, professing to have a secret to whisper in the horse's ear...by which the most... vicious horse could be quieted and controlled." He also published a book in 1860 titled, "The Educated Horse". I'd like to find a copy of that, but so far no luck.

Gene, you can read the text of "The Educated Horse" here.

[Gene C]

Thanks Roger, I had tried the archive earlier without success.

When you click on Roger's link, in the upper right, "see other formats" it goes to the actual scan of the book. You can almost smell the musty dusty pages
I've only glanced through, Offutt's book is interesting. I didn't expect a 300+ page book. Some of it seems a bit silly, other parts very scientific and practical. Fido found p104 quite intersting, A Dog Attending Church.
If you are interested in animals, grew up on a farm, it's worth a quick view.
Unfortunately I didn't see a table of contents. There is a brief index in the back

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks to both of you, Gene, and Roger for the link. Gene, I've always wanted to learn more about the New Salem time, so I put it on my wishlist.