A Few Appropriate Remarks

Begin the New Year with a Daily Reader

The start of a new year. Perhaps you bought a new calendar. Maybe a new journal. A daily devotional book?

Lincoln owned a copy of The Believer's Daily Treasure, a collection of Bible verses and poetry, arranged in a day-by-day format, beginning with January 1. Two books in my collection are based on this nineteenth-century book:

• Abraham Lincoln's Daily Treasure: Moments of Faith with Americas Favorite President by Thomas Freiling
   
• Lincoln's Devotional (public domain text of The Believer's Daily Treasure) with introduction by Carl Sandburg

Either is a good choice for daily reading. Both, in fact, may be on any Lincoln fan's wish list. Lincoln's Devotional most accurately reflects the original book on which it is based, but Abraham Lincoln's Daily Treasure adds insightful observations about the religious and spiritual views of our sixteenth president. I posted a review of each on EverythingLincoln.com.

Happy new year! And, happy bicentennial-birthday year, Mr. Lincoln!

Lincoln is Number 5

"According to Theodore Besterman’s A World Bibliography of Bibliographies, Lincoln is the fifth most written-about figure in human history, behind only William Shakespeare, the Italian poet Dante, the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes. (Jesus, surprisingly, came in 51st overall.) More ink has been used on Lincoln than on any other American, according to Besterman."

So writes Chris Bragg in the Colorado Statesman (Panel to Study Lincoln, Nov 28, 2008).

Lincoln himself was a big fan of Shakespeare. But really? Those other guys beat Lincoln? If it's about prose and poetry, did Lincoln not command the pen well enough for the world to notice? As if the beauty of the Gettysburg Address went unnoticed, perhaps this ditty would convince the world otherwise.

Abraham Lincoln is my name
And with my pen I wrote the same
I wrote in both haste and speed
and left it here for fools to read

Lincoln Sculpture Book: New Salem and More

I'd seen the Lincoln statue in New Salem and recognized the same on the Illinois state quarter. I wanted to learn a bit about it and stumbled across an excellent little book on the sculptor and his statues.

The book is Abraham Lincoln Sculpture: Created by Avard Fairbanks, compiled by his son. What a steal on Amazon: I got it for $3 still in shrinkwrap from a seller there. It contains some great photos showing the process of making a heroic bronze statue, and includes articles and speeches related to Fairbanks' many statues, including one I've always wanted to see in Hawaii. Check it out!

Pilgrim's Progress

Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan, 1678) provides the first documented case of the use of “a bird in the hand...” proverb (according to Made To Stick, Dan and Chip Heath, 2007). Pilgrim’s Progress is also one of the books on the short list of books known to have been read by Abraham Lincoln.