THE MODERN STUDENT'S LIBRARY EACH VOLUME EDITED BY A LEADING AMERICAN AUTHORITY This series is composed of such works as are conspicuous in the province of literature for their enduring influence. Every volume is recognized as essential to a liberal education and will tend to infuse a love for true literature and an appreciation of the qualities which cause it to endure. A descriptive list of the volumes published in this series appears in the last pages of this volume CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS SELECTIONS FROM LINCOLN EDITED BY NATHANIEL WRIGHT STEPHENSON NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS CHICAGO BOSTON 3-15-377 INTRODUCTION FAME, dealing out literary reputation to a man of action, is likely to be perverse. Lincoln is a case in point. He is best known, in a literary way, for a sort of product of which almost nothing certainly has survived. Lincoln the story-teller is a traditional figure in American folk lore. But hardly any of his stories have come down to us except through retellings by other people-sometimes through retellings of retellings of retellings. Obviously, in every instance, it is an open question whether the given story has retained enough of Lincoln to justify one in calling it his. Dr. William E. Barton has a copy of a collection of Lincoln stories in which Lincoln's friend Arnold has jotted down his belief that perhaps half the number are authentic-unfortunately his criticism is not in detail. Every Lin coln story is a legitimate subject of suspicion because the wildest liberty-not to say libertinism-has indulged itself attributing tales to his authorship. This is particularly true of questionable tales. A numerous body of Rabelaisian indecencies-so gross that even Mr. Mencken, for all his bitterness of disdain, would not include them in his "Americana"-are repeated from mouth to mouth, no one daring to commit them to print. Nevertheless, in spite of all this uncertainty in the authorship, it is fatuous not to ground one's impression of Lincoln the literary man on his stories. Story-telling was indubitably his earliest basis of reputation. It V |