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 > -- Prof. Harold K. Bush Professor of English 3800 Lindell Saint Louis University St. Louis, MO 63108 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h) <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>