Among my earliest childhood memories is the frequent reference to my mother’s family’s relationship with President Abraham Lincoln. I accepted this without skepticism for most of my life, even though I never heard or saw the proof of the claim. That is, until my Uncle Mark and Aunt Barbara Denton dug into the genealogical connections that proved the connection.
In short, my great-great-great-great grandfather on my mother’s side was the grandfather of President Abe. My grandfather was also named Abe and had two sons: Josiah and Thomas. Thomas was father of President Abe, and Josiah was father of Elizabeth Lincoln, who married Isom Denton, who was the father of Joseph Denton, who was the father of John Wilson Denton, who was the father of my mother, Lois Anne Denton.
So President Abe and I are cousins!
I’d always been fascinated by the stories of Lincoln. My earliest reading about Lincoln was from the juvenile section of our library. My Mom got me a book on Lincoln, and I treasured that book.
As I got older, I tried to find more sophisticated efforts to uncover the “real” Lincoln. I discovered that there have been more books written about Lincoln than almost anyone else. According to that infallible source, Google, there have been at least 15,000 books written about Lincoln. I haven’t read or collected them all, but it’s inspiring to imagine what motivated so many literary efforts.
My Lincoln reading habits have been eclectic. Initially I’d just read books from our local library that had some appeal. The Sandburg books on Lincoln, which are extensive, remain the best general biography about Lincoln available. Sandburg spent more than 13 years of his life researching Lincoln, including reading more than 1,000 books on his subject.
The moment my general interest turned into a hobbyist’s collection occurred when I discovered the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago. I was involved in litigation that took me to Chicago on a regular basis and was walking along Clark Street to meet a friend for dinner when I happened to walk by it. It was closed for the day, but I made it my mission to go back.
The owners also had a mission: to collect every book written about Lincoln and to invite authors of newly written books on Lincoln, a never-ending quest, to come to the shop for their book launch. I’ve visited the shop many times, and I regularly join the Zoom broadcasts for new Lincoln book launches. The interviews with the authors are always interesting, if for no other reason than to see how they managed to find a new way to examine the life, legend, and lore of our 16th president.
Perhaps the most compelling reason I stay engaged in my collection of books about Lincoln is the variety of ways authors have found to approach the subject. Many of their books are focused on a singular event in his life that they explore in depth.
In other cases, the association with Lincoln is more sublime. There are books written about his favorite foods, where he bought his clothes, cases he tried as a lawyer riding the circuit in central Illinois, and on and on.
Many of the books are truly scholarly efforts to add to the understanding of this very complex figure. One of my favorites is the Jon Meacham’s And There Was Light. While it’s hard to find some hidden nugget that’s first disclosed in a new book, the fact that Meacham was able to provide a detailed review of the early struggles of Lincoln, his personal losses and challenges, and how that shaped his broader views that carried him through the Civil War is worth the read.
Other books that may be less scholarly but no less interesting include a book about the dig in his Springfield backyard to see what could be found in his garbage! The list goes on and on.
In addition to the numerous books I’ve collected about “Honest Abe,” now totaling nearly 100, the hobby has led to travels to Lincoln’s boyhood home in Southern Indiana, to his mother’s grave site, to his birthplace in Kentucky, and to the incredible Lincoln Library in Springfield, Illinois. It’s a trip worth taking and day worth spending for anyone with an interest in the life of Lincoln.
Collecting and reading books about Lincoln has been a life-long passion, and I look forward to the announcement of each new book about him. And I expect that it will remain a constant during my lifetime—and without a doubt thereafter.
And as a “shirttail” relative, I remain forever grateful for his focus on preserving the Union and freeing the slaves. I can’t imagine a more significant legacy. It’s hard to look at the photos of Lincoln during the Civil War and reconcile the aged and wrinkled face with the fact that he was only 56 years old at the time of his assassination.
