Children's Books

[RJNorton]

Wonderful post, Gene!

[Gene C]

Out Of The Wilderness by Virginia Eifert
Copyright 1956 with about 210 pages. 13 nice illustrations by Manning Dee V. Lee

The book aimed for the 8-14 year old age group covers for the most part, Lincoln's life in Indiana.
Many of the events she writes about are not true, but some of them are. She does a nice job of mixing in the people Lincoln knew as characters in her stories.
I was very disappointed in how she portrays Thomas Lincoln, but this is a fairly common practice when Ms. Eifert wrote this. In this book Thomas has very few redeeming qualities. Dennis Hanks is portrayed as a young man who frequently gets in trouble for drinking, and a lazy loafer. Squire Hall, Lincoln's cousin who marries step-sister Tilda Johnson, is characterized as "low account"

One of the sections I enjoyed had to do with the big freeze the winter after they moved to Illinois and when Lincoln almost seriously froze his feet. Ms. Eifert has a tendency to overembellish some of the details in these stories in a manner I didn't care for.
https://archive.org/details/outofwildern...ew=theater
(bottom of page 203-210. You'll have to sign up/in to borrow this book from Internet Archives, but I haven't received any junk emails for doing this)

You can find copies to purchase on Amazon or ABE Books.
https://www.amazon.com/Out-Wilderness-Vi..._author_dp

[Gene C]

The Great Good Man
(Told for Young People) by William E Barton

copyright 1927 with 293 pages
William Barton also wrote a two volume Life of Abraham Lincoln copyright 1925.
The Great Good Man seems to be a condensed version of the 1,000 + pages of his two volume work.

Unfortunately this book is not in the Internet Archive, and printed copies are hard to find.
https://www.amazon.com/great-good-man-ac...603&sr=1-1
It is a book for young people, not a childrens book. Covers Lincoln's entire life. He does a good job in blending Lincoln's virtues with his accomplishments.

Several events in Lincoln's life Barton especially covers well....The half-faced camp, Nancy Lincoln's death, the year of the big snow in Illinois and Abe's frozen feet, New Salem, the Duff Armstrong Trial and his presidential pardons for soldiers.

Since this book in not online and Barton's much larger Life of Abraham Lincoln is on the Internet Archives - https://archive.org/details/lifeofabraha...ew=theater
I will share a few passages from the Life of Abraham Lincoln book.

Half-faced camp - "This poor shed was only the temporary home of the family, though it appears to have been kept somewhat steadily in use. The reports of the Lincolns to their Kentucky kinsfolk can not have been very depressing, for there soon followed an exodus of Sparrows and Hankses to the new land of promise. When the Lincolns moved into their permanent home, Thomas and Elizabeth Sparrow came on and occupied the camp until they had a home ready ; and afterward there came Levi Hall and Nancy his wife, and there were other families moving from Kentucky who successively rejoiced in the poor shelter of the halffaced camp."

Nancy Lincoln's death - "The first great sorrow in the life of Abraham Lincoln occurred two years after the removal of the family to Indiana. The ''milk-sick" visited the settlement, and claimed a number of victims. Thomas and Elizabeth Sparrow, who had been Nancy's foster parents, died. Levi and Nancy Hall also died. Thomas Lincoln sawed out lumber for their coffins, and gave them decent burial according to the standards of the time and place. A few days later Nancy Hanks Lincoln died. The date of her death was October 5, 18 18. Again Thomas, aided by Abraham, brought the whip-saw into requisition, and the mother of the future president was laid to rest beside the Sparrows and the Halls."

"Of the last sickness of Lincoln's mother, we have one testimony from an eye-witness, as it was given in Herndon :
She struggled on, day by day, a good Christian woman, and died on the seventh day after she was taken sick. Abe and his sister Sarah waited on their mother, and did the little jobs and errands required by them. There was no physician nearer than thirty-five miles. The mother knew she was going to die, and called the children to her bedside. She was very weak, and the children leaned over while she gave her last messages. Placing her feeble hand on little Abe's head, she told him to be kind and good to his father and sister; to both she said, Be good to one another, expressing a hope that they might live, as they had been taught by her, to love their kindred and worship God." (more to follow)

[Gene C]

The Great Good Man (cont'd)

Frozen Feet & the Winter of the Deep Snow - "The winter of 1830-1t was long remembered in Illinois as "the winter of the deep snow." Lincoln's canoe upset as he was crossing the Sangamon River, and his feet froze. For two weeks he lived in the home of Major Warnick while his feet were healing-.

"The winter of the deep snow" was for a whole generation a dividing point in Illinois history. The snow fell, not, as it seemed, in flakes, but in shovelsful. The snow was followed by bitter cold weather — twelve or more degrees below zero — and the settlers were imprisoned for weeks. Livestock perished; and wild game has never been so plentiful in Illinois since. In later years when old settlers compared early experiences, no one was thought to have anything- really worth recounting unless he came to the prairies in time to participate in the experiences of that terrible winter."

New Salem - "New Salem might appear to us an unattractive pioneer town, but that was not the way it looked to Lincoln. Not one of its twenty houses cost more than fifty, or at most one hundred dollars, but very interesting people lived there. It was the largest town he had eve lived in, and he quickly made friends."

Duff (William) Armstrong Almanac Trial - "Jack Armstrong, William Armstrong's father, died, and was buried in Concord Cemetery, where Ann Rutledge was first buried. His interment occurred on the very day of his son's arrest. His widow, "Aunt Hannah," drove to Springfield and besought Lincoln to come to Beardstown and defend her son. Lincoln promised to do so, and on the night before the trial he arrived in Beardstown."

What happens next you are probably familiar with. For a good account of what happened, go to page 310 - https://archive.org/details/lifeofabraha...ew=theater

Pardon For Soldiers - Barton gives evidence of Lincoln's virtues in the 10 pages he devotes to this subject. He spends an entire chapter in Life of Abraham Lincoln titled 'Justice and Mercy' - https://archive.org/details/lifeofabraha...ew=theater
There's to much there to give the attention it deserves in the space allotted here.

This book was intended for young people. Young or old will appreciate the quality given to Lincoln's life story in these 300 pages.
It is one of the best biographies of 300 pages or less that I have read.