Rembering
Abraham Lincoln:
Man, Myth, and Meaning

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pba01972
The Life of Abraham Lincoln
(Lincoln History Society, 1909)
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Abraham Lincoln
is among the most written about U.S. presidents.
As of 2008, the Library
of Congress lists over 2,000 publications about
Lincoln. Lincoln’s role in the Civil War and the abolition
of slavery make him a monumental figure in U.S. history;
and yet, it is not only his political legacy but also
his character that have intrigued generations of Americans.
Upon his assassination in 1865, Lincoln was immediately
deified. In the following decades, writers and publishers
imbued the memory of Lincoln with myth – so much
so that today it is difficult to distinguish fact from
fiction. Lincoln has become the ideal statesman, the
savior of the Union, the great emancipator, the folk
legend, the common man, and the embodiment of the American
Dream. The way we choose to remember this mythic American
hero reveals as much about our own ideals as it does
about his actual life. Visual imagery on publishers’ bindings
can contribute to an analysis of Lincoln in American
memory
Read
our brief biography of Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln the Ideal Statesman
In 1885 Allen Thorndike Rice, publisher of the North
American Review (a prominent 19th century literary
magazine), collected personal memories of Abraham
Lincoln from notable public
figures such as Frederick Douglass, Ulysses S. Grant,
and Walt Whitman. One year later, the North American
Review published these
submissions in a collection entitled
Reminiscences
of Abraham Lincoln. Publishing personal recollections
of Lincoln was a popular trend in the late 1800s.
These recollections
tended to present Lincoln as a gifted politician
and natural leader. Writers ranged from those who had
worked closely
with the president to those who had only met him
once or twice, and they rarely supported their narratives
with
documentation. Thus, while these publications
contributed greatly to the
myth of Lincoln, it is difficult to ascertain their
historical accuracy.
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pba01976
Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln
(North American Review, 1888)
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The North American Review used a neoclassical-style
binding for its 1888 publication of
Reminiscences
of Abraham
Lincoln. The cover features a gold-stamped medallion
with a Roman-style
bust of Lincoln. Since America’s founding, artists
have used neoclassical styles to associate America and its
political leaders with ideals of democracy, order and empire.
After Lincoln’s death, artists continued this neoclassical
tradition to place the martyred president’s memory
within a legacy of great republican leaders. Rice wrote in
his introduction to Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, “If
we have not had our age of Pericles, of Augustus, or of Leo,
we can boast of a history that has given us, within the period
of a century, the patriotism of a Washington, and Lincoln,
and a Grant” (xxii).
Read an excerpt from Reminiscences
of Abraham Lincoln
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pba01979
The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln
(Henry
Altemus Co., 1918)
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Lincoln the Folk Hero
In the early 20th century, juvenile series novels became
increasingly popular. These wholesome adventure novels
were mass produced, cheaply bound, and inexpensive. In
a time
of increasing anxiety over the feminizing influences of
urbanization and middle class office work, many juvenile
series featured
rugged, manly characters on adventures overseas, in the
military, or in the Wild West. Henry Altemus Co. began
publishing juvenile
series in 1909, and continued through the 1930s. Among
these was the American History Makers Series, which included
The
Story of Young George Washington, The Story
of Young Benjamin Franklin, and The Story of
Young Abraham Lincoln.
Juvenile series novels often used colorful poster-style
bindings to attract the attention of young readers. The
cover of the
1918 edition of The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln features
an illustration of Lincoln throwing an opponent in a
wrestling match. Appealing to the male youth market,
this illustration
presents Lincoln as a brawny folk hero. The book is filled
with folk tales and anecdotes about Lincoln’s frontier
youth that emphasizes his rugged masculinity. Although
the author, Wayne Whipple, claims historical accuracy
in his
introduction, the book is obviously intended as entertainment
and moral teaching, not legitimate scholarship.
Read
an excerpt from The
Story of Young Abraham Lincoln
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pba01966
The Story of Abraham Lincoln
(M. A. Donohue,
1927)
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Lincoln the Self-Made Man
Lincoln’s biographers
have often presented him as a self-made man. Unprivileged
and uneducated, Lincoln is credited with rising to power through hard work,
determination,
and moral inscrutability. For many Americans, Lincoln’s
life offered proof that the American Dream was possible.
The archetypal log cabin, Lincoln’s childhood home,
symbolized this possibility. In the 1890s, there was a
movement to memorialize the places of Lincoln’s childhood.
These places would serve as national reminders that every
American,
no matter how humble his beginnings, could rise to greatness.
In 1891, the Abraham Lincoln Log Cabin Association bought
a cabin in Coles County, Illinois that Lincoln and his
family allegedly lived in during his childhood. Eleanor
Gridley,
secretary of the association, spent a summer researching
the cabin and interviewing local residents. The cabin was
then dismantled and reassembled for exhibition in Chicago.
M. A. Donohue & Co. published Gridley’s research
in a book entitled The Story of Abraham Lincoln.
The cover of the 1927 edition features a stamped picture
of a log cabin
juxtaposed against the White House, symbolizing Lincoln’s
journey as a self-made man.
Read an excerpt from The
Story of Abraham Lincoln
The
ideal statesman, the folk hero, and self-made man are
only three examples of how Lincoln has been envisioned
by American authors and artists. We invite you to
explore the PBO database for more pictoral representations
of Abraham Lincoln on Publisher's Book Bindings.
Search
the PBO database for books about Abraham Lincoln
Selected
Readings
Fehrenbacher, Don E. Lincoln
in Text and Context: Collected Essays. Stanford, Califoria:
Stanford University Press, 1987.
Peterson, Marrill D. Lincoln
in American Memory. New York: Oxford University Press,
1994.
Related Online Resources Abraham Lincoln Historical
Digitization Project
http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/
Abraham Lincoln Papers at
the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html
Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library and Museum (Springfield, Ill.)
http://www.alincoln-library.com/home.html
American Experience: The
Time of the Lincolns
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lincolns/
American President: Abraham
Lincoln
http://www.americanpresident.org/history/abrahamlincoln/
Federal Lincoln Bicentennial
Site
http://www.lincoln200.gov/
Lincoln Museum (Fort Wayne,
Ind.)
http://www.thelincolnmuseum.org/
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