Stories and Anecdotes About Abraham Lincoln

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"ABE" LINCOLN'S YARNS AND STORIES.

There number of fictional and quasi fictional stories surrounding the life and career of Abraham Lincoln is amazingly large. Most center on his early life before becoming president, and aim to show Lincoln as a country philosopher or embodying any number of virtues such as honesty, industriousness or wisdom. They have an air of tall tale about them, and we can be reasonably sure that they did not happen as described, or probably did not happen at all. Still, these tall tales about Lincoln are important - obviously not as biographical sources - but in terms of understanding the Lincoln mystique and the way he was regarded by his contemporaries.

Some of these tall tales and anecdotes were told by Lincoln himself to friends and acquaintances. Wheatever kernel of truth they may contain, these stories were most likely embellished by Lincoln to make them more humorous or more pithy.

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