Abe Lincoln Laughing: Humorous Anecdotes from Original Sources by and About Abraham Lincoln

From his earliest days in Illinois law and politics to his tenure as president, Abraham Lincoln loved to tell stories. He did so to make a political point, to sway opinion, and to sustain the national morale during the Civil War. This book, first published in 1982, remains the definitive critical edition of Lincoln anecdotes. The subjects of the three hundred anecdotes collected here range from Yankees to bedbugs, from abolitionists to wild animals, from Democrats to hog thieves. Lincoln told many stories based on his own experiences, but more than half of his material came from other sources and would have been familiar to his audiences. His contribution to these borrowed stories was his celebrated style of delivery--his performance rather than his invention. P. M. Zall's notes provide other versions of the stories for comparison with Lincoln's, and the result is an intriguing picture of Lincoln's storytelling art. Although the manufacture of "Lincoln stories" began during his presidency and continued after his assassination, the apocryphal tales (which Zall has carefully identified) lack the unmistakable stamp of Lincoln's performance. The anecdotes appear in chronological order of their first written record; the accompanying notes place them in their proper contexts, fix their authenticity, and identify their sources. A number of anecdotes about rather than by Lincoln are included, and two indexes--one by general topics and one by specific subjects--offer quick access to individual anecdotes.