Books: Bits & Classics

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: His SPEECHES AND WRITINGS (843 pp.)—Edifed by Roy P. Basler—World ($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 styles—a greater range than any other U.S. statesman or orator. He wrote gravely and inspiringly at times, colloquially and waggishly at others. Now & then,...

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