ABRAHAM LINCOLN: His SPEECHES AND WRITINGS (843 pp.)Edifed by Roy P. BaslerWorld ($3.75).
Few U.S. Presidents have left much of a legacy to literature. The literary remains of Millard Fillmore or Benjamin Harrison, for instance, are scholar-carrion. Abraham Lincoln's writings, in bright contrast, remain fresh and readable.
Perhaps the reason is, as Carl Sandburg suggests in a preface to this book, that Lincoln had a wide variety of stylesa greater range than any other U.S. statesman or orator. He wrote gravely and inspiringly at times, colloquially and waggishly at others. Now & then,...