Our first meeting

We had a great discussion today at our first meeting. So many things tie into Lincoln as a "Literary Genius." We used some the questions in the reader but also went off on other threads. Everyone participated with excellent insights and opinions. Topics touched upon including charisma, President Obama, the training of lawyers, and Lincoln as a poet.

Many of the excerpts in the reader mentioned books that Lincoln read and most influenced him -- here is a list of some of them with their locations in the Alvin Sherman Library:

What Lincoln Read:
Holy Bible : Authorized King James Version : new Scofield study system with introductions, annotations, and subject chain references / editor, C.I. Scofield. New York: Oxford University Press, c1998.
Sherman Library BS185 1998 .N48 1998b

Shakespeare, William. The complete works of Shakespeare / edited by David Bevington. Edition 6th ed. New York : Pearson/Longman, 2008.
Sherman Library PR2755 .B4 2008

Bunyan, John. Pilgrim's progress; with a critical and biographical profile of the author by Ola Elizabeth Winslow. Danbury, Connecticut : Grolier Enterprises Corp. [1978?]
Sherman Library PR3330.A2 W5

Aesop's fables / translated with an introduction and notes by Laura Gibbs. Publisher Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2002.
Sherman Library PA3855.E5 G533 2002

Euclid. Euclid's Elements : all thirteen books complete in one volume / the Thomas L. Heath translation ; Dana Densmore, editor. Edition 2nd ed. with minor revisions. Publisher Santa Fe, N.M. : Green Lion Press, 2003. Sherman Library QA31 .E875 2003

If you would like to read more of what Lincoln wrote see:

Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html

Finally if you are interested in reading more about Lincoln as a writer check out this book:

Kaplan, Fred. Lincoln : the biography of a writer. New York : HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. Sherman Library E457.2 .K357 2008

Professor Kaplan was a speaker at the Broward County Libraries Foundation Lit Live program held at the Alvin Sherman Library in March of this year.