THE COLLECTED WORKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN (8 vols. Index to come)Roy P. Basler, Editor($115).
This week's Lincoln book is 4,452 pages long and most of it is written by Abraham Lincoln himself. The first jotting is a rhyme probably not original with the teen-age writer:
Abraham Lincoln
his hand and pen
he will be good but
god knows When
The last entry is an engagement note: "Allow Mr. Ashmum & friend to come in at 9 a.m. tomorrow. A. Lincoln." It was an engagement the President never kept, for the note was signed at 8:30 p.m. on April 14, 1865, minutes before...