Monday, October 13, 2008

Be like Lincoln - Read


If you were asked to name a characteristic of Abraham Lincoln's, what would it be? His honesty is always up there at the top, but so is his love of the written word. I can't ever remember a time when "Lincoln" wasn't synonymous with "voracious reader" in my mind.

There are more books written about Lincoln than anyone except Jesus Christ. I've provided a list of books you can read to learn more about our sixteenth president. The list now links directly to a source where you can order each one.

U of I Press keeps history alive
A number of books about Lincoln are published by the University of Illinois Press, a publishing house with a passion much like my own - keeping regional history alive. Therefore, whenever possible I'll link directly to the U of I Press website. For books published elsewhere, I'll normally take you to a major bookseller's website.

My blog booklist
You won't find the same books listed each time you visit my blog. The list is constantly evolving. I plan to feature books by authors or on subjects which relate most closely to my recent posts.

The book I'm currently reading will always be at the top. For now, that's David Herbert Donald's Lincoln. We're using it as the text in the Lincoln course I'm taking at Heartland College in Bloomington, Ill. Get used to seeing that one listed through early December.

Now featuring Davis and Wilson
For the next few days, the list will also feature books by Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. Their names and faces have been familiar to me for almost as long as Lincoln's. Drs. Davis and Wilson are my hometown heroes, as much as Ronald Reagan, Carl Sandburg, Mother Bickerdyke or Superman himself (George Reeves). And they stepped up the hero ladder even more this past weekend when they did a magnificent job hosting the Twenty-Third Annual Lincoln Colloquium. Read my Oct. 11 post to learn more about this great event.

As I transition to a hyperlinked book list, you'll find two lists for a while. May you find something listed here you've not yet read, and in reading, may you discover another morsel or two of Lincoln knowledge you haven't yet discovered. Happy reading!
© Copyright 2008 Ann Tracy Mueller. All rights reserved.

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