I think I should clarify something about this topic.  Pretty much everyone
knew about Lincoln's raft trips -- as they knew about him as a "rail
splitter," or they knew that he grew up in southern Indiana, or lost his
mother Nancy Hanks, etc.  Just like everyone reading this knows that Reagan
was a football announcer on the radio and went to Hollywood to star in
movies; or that Clinton grew up in rural Ark. with a single Mom, that he
"did not inhale," and that he shook the hand of Jack Kennedy; or that
Barack Obama had a white mother and and a Kenyan father, spent time in
Indonesia and Hawaii, and that he was a grassroots organizer in Chicago;
etc., etc.  It was not necessary to read a book as a source for any of
these details; they are just sort of in the water of presidential
campaigns.

Twain would NOT have needed to "read a book" to know that AL took raft
trips down the Mighty Mississippi.

On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 10:40 PM, Arianne <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Thanks Barbara.  I really appreciate your knowledgeable tips!
> Chances are Mark Twain read Howell's work, for sure, and Lincoln's raft
> trip might have been mentionied in it, too.  I'll check your archive link.
> THANKS
> Arianne Laidlaw
>
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 3:13 PM, Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > I don't think the fact that William Dean Howells wrote an 1860 campaign
> > biography _Life of Abraham Lincoln_ should be overlooked.  This book is
> not
> > listed in Gribben's _Mark Twain's Library: A Reconstruction_.  However
> in a
> > letter dated 5 Aug. 1876, Howells reminded Clemens: "You know I wrote the
> > Life of Lincoln which elected him."  The text of Howell's book is also
> > available online at archive.org.
> >
> > Barb
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Arianne Laidlaw A '58
>



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