Lincoln and Illinois used to go hand in hand; not so much now. Sandburg was born in Illinois in the later 19th Century when Lincoln Legends were everywhere. So it was natural that Sandburg could write a very good book about Lincoln. This is not a biography as much as a narrative history. It was published in 1925.
Forced to read other Sandburg in high school, I didn't enjoy his work; I almost skipped reading this book.
Lincoln was as interesting and nuanced a character as we could find; it's a good thing he was so famous, since his life is very interesting to read about.
He was self-taught and a life time learner; though he received some encouragement as he grew. His father did not encourage his learning to read, etc. --it took time away from the heavy farm work--as a boy and young man, Lincoln excelled at these things. "Lincoln Logs" and "rail splitter": no kidding. William Faulkner told the story of a farmer in MS with 5 children that he taught to work very hard---just not for him; he was so hard on his kids they all left him to tend his farm alone in his old age. Lincoln's dad was bit like that.
The narrative is chatty and gossipy: Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks, was born out of wedlock, which may have resulted in the entire family moving west from Virginia to Kentucky soon after her birth (late 1700's); her mother did as she pleased until she finally settled on a husband she loved. Nancy was sent to live with a relative. Nancy was uniquely strange and mystical, solitary, religious; she died young when he was a child; suddenly from an infectious disease. A few years later, his sister died in childbirth.
These were hard losses. Fortunately, when his father remarried, the lady was kind, encouraging and comforting. As a teen, Lincoln chopped wood, cleared acres, helped on farms---and wrote letters for people for money---he had taught himself to write so well he could market the skill.
All his life, he hand-wrote his own letters to hundreds of people. Even to the current time, examples of his work are sometimes found among family papers in dusty old attics. When this book was being researched (1920's) those letters were everywhere: libraries, museums, personal collections.
Also, when Sandburg did his research, there were still many people living who had known Lincoln in life; that's why the book is full of all the juicy nuggets, it seems: people would remember some incident concerning Lincoln as a child, young adult or as a circuit lawyer in the 1840-50's.
Notes made after completing the book:
Lincoln's mystical, slightly strange mother who died young, leaving him when he was about 9, went about her daily chores reciting Bible verses and scripture to the children. It was his foundation of moral teaching. He was a highly moral man, spiritual; but seldom went to church. He was regularly criticized for this, yet had a solid reputation as Honest Abe right from the beginning.
Lincoln was a Stud when he was young. 6 ft 4in and the strongest young man around. Not a bully, but the one the other boys called when they needed help with a bully. He had a following right from the start this way, his club.
He worked harder than anyone else, too. His moral fiber was secure; he did not drink though he was not a Temperance Man. He piloted a flatboat on the MS River to New Orleans, taking a steamer back. Then he settled in Salem IL. He had seen a certain girl there.
His love life? Back in those early days in Salem he fell in love with Anne Rutledge and she with him. They were engaged. It was perfect. Then malaria came to town: within days she was gone "into the silence". Lincoln nearly went mad with grief. He was already full of gloom and abandonment from the deaths of this Mother and sister and others. He was obsessed with death. Friends helped him through it and he pulled himself together somehow.
Later in Springfield he endured a difficult courtship with Mary Todd, which led to marriage, after some break ups and make ups. Mary was rich and politically connected. Friends thought they would work as a political couple, and they did. He was the public face and she worked behind the scenes. She was educated, smart, social---and she was also the child of a mother who died young. She had abandonment issues so severe she could not get along with her step-mother. As a child in Lexington KY, she had to be boarded at her school, two blocks from her home.
The couple was united in their love for their children---and only one survived. The line was not prolific; if memory serves, the last direct descendant of Abe and Mary passed away about 1980?
At the current time, with our world falling apart, it seems sometimes, just like Lincoln's was, it comforts me to read a book like this. They writing style was excellent. I'm read a first edition; copies of these are hard to find. Other editions are condensed and abridged, but the original was great.
