Critic's Corner

Lincoln Legens

By Stephen Davis · Originally published June 2018 · p. 34

Lincoln As I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes and Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies. Edited by Harold Holzer. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, P. O. Box 2225, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2225. 1999. 288 pp. $16.95.

That’s the heading I used when I reviewed one of Harold Holzer’s numerous Lincoln books for Blue & Gray Magazine almost twenty years ago. Recently I had a pleasant reacquaintance with this most interesting work, when I bumped the Lincoln shelf of my personal library. For this volume, Holzer collected almost fifty contemporaneous observations on Lincoln, written by people who knew him well. These included Joshua Speed, “the closest friend Lincoln ever had,” as the editor explains. William H. Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner and early biographer, remembered how the future president arrived at their law office around nine, and would “pick up a newspaper, spread himself out on an old sofa, one leg on a chair, and read aloud, much to my discomfort.” “Singularly enough, Lincoln never read any other way but aloud,” Herndon added. “This habit used to annoy me almost beyond the point of endurance. I once asked him why he did so. This was his explanation: ‘When I read aloud two senses catch the idea: first, I see what I read, second, I hear it, and therefore I can remember it better.’” Lincoln’s peculiar style of reading got me once more to searching for, among Holzer’s selections, those touching on Abraham Lincoln reading (Lincoln legens, as the Romans used to say [amo Latinam!]). Lincoln’s stepmother, Sarah Johnston, remembered how when the lad was about nine, “he read all the books he could lay his hands on.” “Abe was a constant reader of them,” she recalled in 1865, when she was about 77 years old. “Abe read histories, papers, and other books…. He read diligently—studied in the day time—didn’t after night much—went to bed early—got up early and then read—eat his breakfast—go to work in the field with the men.” In all of this reading, Sarah recalled a practice of young Abe. …when he came across a passage that struck him he would write it down on boards if he had no paper and keep it there till he did get paper—then he would rewrite it—look at it, repeat it. He had a copy book—a kind of scrap book in which he put down all things and thus preserved them. He ciphered on boards when he had no paper and no slate and when the board would get too black he would shave it off with a drawing knife and go on again. Dennis Hanks, first cousin of Lincoln’s mother, was ten years older than Lincoln, and actually lived with the family after Lincoln’s mother died in 1818. A few months after the president’s death, Hanks wrote that as a lad, “Abe was getting hungry for books, reading everything he could lay his hands on…. Webster’s old Spelling Book—the life [of] Henry clay—Robinson Crusoe—Weems Life of Washington—Aesop’s Fables—Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress….He was a constant and I may say stubborn reader, his father having sometimes to slash him for neglecting his work by reading.” Cousin of Mary Lincoln, Elizabeth Todd Grimsley, recalled from the president’s White House days that after lunch, …he would stretch himself upon the couch, with a book in his hand, as often the Bible as any other, for he felt there was nothing in literature that would compare with poetic Job, Moses the Law Giver, the beautiful and varied experiences of the Psalms of David, or the grand majestic utterances of Isaiah. He would read aloud to us, recite some poem, until recalled to the cares of state by the messenger. And this was, at that time, the only relaxation he took. Holzer includes in his compilation an excerpt from one of Lincoln’s Chicago political allies, Isaac Arnold, who wrote an early biography of the president in 1869. From it comes Arnold’s remembrance: The two books which he read most were the Bible and Shakespeare. With these he was very familiar, reading and studying them habitually and constantly. He had great fondness for poetry, and eloquence, and his taste and judgment in each was exquisite. Shakespeare was his favorite poet; Burns stood next. …Often when going to and from the army, on steamers and in carriage, he took a copy of Shakespeare with him, and not unfrequently read, aloud to his associates. After conversing upon public affairs, he would take up his Shakespeare, and addressing his companions, remark, “What do you say now to a scene from Macbeth, or Hamlet, or Julius Caesar,” and then he would read aloud, scene after scene, never seeming to tire of the enjoyment. All of this makes me want to pull out Spielberg’s Lincoln DVD again, and see if the inimitable Daniel Day-Lewis is captured reading pleasantly aloud…. Question for Lincoln lorists. Years ago I read a story that the president liked to tell about the importance of keeping one’s cool.

Best I can remember, the yarn hinged on Thanksgiving Day, and a family’s big holiday meal. As everyone sat expectantly around the dining table, the father and family head approached the succulently cooked turkey with upraised carving knife and long fork. The bird, however, proved to be a bit tough. Plying his cutlery to the fowl, the dad began to cut and pry with increasing exertion. He struggled so hard that unfortunately he let loose a loud and very audible fart. Everyone in the room gasped in horror and embarrassment. All wondered how the paterfamilias would somehow recover. As I recall Lincoln’s telling of the story, the father briefly sat down, quietly eyeing all in the room. Then he arose, grasped again his carving tools, and announced to the familial ensemble: “Now, let’s see if I can cut this bird without farting.” After all these years, I can’t find this vignette in any of my Lincoln books (I had hoped it was in Harold’s compendium). Can anyone email me a bibliographic citation? If you can confirm the source of this yarn, I’ll mail the first correct respondent a $10 Starbucks gift card. (Give me your mailing address, and I’ll cite you in my next column.) Even Honest Abe would appreciate this reward.

Stephen Davis of Cumming, Ga., is Book Review Editor for Civil War News. He is currently writing a study of how the Atlanta Intelligencer, the city’s leading daily newspaper, covered the war, 1861–1865. His co-author is Bill Hendrick, veteran journalist of forty years, writing for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Associated Press and many other publications. Their book will be published by the University of Tennessee Press.