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5 tributes to Abraham Lincoln from literary greats

Here, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln, are comments from five literary greats found in “The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now,” published by The Library of America.

5. Jacques Barzun, writing about Abraham Lincoln

  • By Danny Heitman

“Lincoln acquired his power over words in the only two ways known to man – by reading and writing. His reading was small in range and much of a kind: the Bible, Bunyan, Byron, Burns, Defoe, Shakespeare, and a then-current edition of Aesop’s Fables. These are the books from which a genius would extract the lesson of terseness and strength.”        

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