File:Biographies and stories of Abraham Lincoln (1865) (14761911251).jpg

Identifier: biographiesstor00linc (find matches)
Title: Biographies and stories of Abraham Lincoln
Year: 1886 (1880s)
Authors: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Subjects: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Presidents
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Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: Friends of The Lincoln Collection of Indiana, Inc.

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sedby what theyve found. Id imbibed thisnotion that the archive was just oldcodgers making up stories, says MichaelBurlingame, professor emeritus of his-tory at Connecticut College, who firstdived into Herndon in the early 1990s.But as I read through it, I thought thiswas really interesting—it didnt seem tobe implausible. Previous generations, hesays, treated this as a nuclear wastedump, but its really a gold mine. To Herndons sources, Lincoln, at firstblush, seemed to be every bit the fron-tiersman of yore. He emerged, literally,out of the woods in 1831 in a tiny towncalled New Salem, 111. He was a ganglyman, at 6 foot 4, with a gaunt face atopa narrow frame, who sported ill-fittingpants that barely covered his ankles: Asruff a specimen of humanity as could befound, one observer called him. Lincolnwon the townspeople over, though, withhis ribald humor and feats of strength.He fought a local bully in a wrestling 68 U.S.News & World report, February 21, 2005 LEFT: CORBIS BETTMANN
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match and tried his hand at a series ofjobs: miller, storekeeper, surveyor, andpostman. Young Abe also seems to have had asoft side. Within a few years of his arrival,many in New Salem said Lincoln fell inlove with a young woman named AnnRutledge, a local tavern keepers daugh-ter. Historians have quarreled about Annfor generations, with some insisting therewas no such relationship. Even Herndonwas surprised to hear about her. ButDouglas Wilson, codirector of the LincolnStudies Center at Knox College, con-vincingly argued recently in a book calledHonors Voice that of 24 people Herndontalked to who knew Lincoln and Ann atthe time, 22 said he courted her. Theywere engaged to be married, it seems, in1835. But that August, tragedy struck—Rutledge contracted brain fever (prob- ably typhoid) and died. Later, Lincoln would becelebrated for stoically hid-ing his emotions in times oftrouble—the man one friend described asthe most shut-mouthed who ever livedtold a client after a heartbreakin

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