Abe Lincoln, the story 'retailer'

 

I enjoy reading the stories Abe Lincoln told! I grew up with them. They always amuse me or make me see or understand something differently.

I created this blog so that you, too, can enjoy some of those memorable stories. 

The first post after this one - Lincoln, the Storyteller - delves into Lincoln's prowess as just a storyteller. It offers some opinions by his contemporaries and some opinions by scholars (and even Lincoln's own opinion) as to what made his storytelling unique.

However, Lincoln did say:

You speak of Lincoln stories. I don't think that is a correct phrase. I don't make the stories mine by telling them. I'm only a retail dealer.

Retail or not, his stories populated his speeches, personal conversations, and his courtroom comments. Some are from a books published in 1901 and 1912 that were put together from a variety of verified and unverified sources, but J.B.McClure's Lincoln Stories (1879) is often recognized as the most reliable collection. Others are from letters and journals kept by contemporaries of Lincoln's - undoubtedly polished by time and reverence for him. The source from which each story comes is at the bottom of that story.

To prove that Lincoln did or did not tell a particular story however is often impossible. Still, the sheer volume of these stories that exist - compared with any other president or famous American figure - is a testament to the respect and admiration for the person that Abraham Lincoln was. In fact, Lincoln told so many stories that the New York Herald once called him "the American Aesop".

Hope you enjoy this collection of Abe Lincoln's stories.

Mac