林肯传

目录 HOW THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN-AND WHY PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIXES Ⅰ. First Inaugural Address Ⅱ. Second Inaugural Address HOW THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN-AND WHY One spring day, some years ago, I was breakfasting in the Hotel Dysart, London; and, as usual, I was trying to winnow a bit of American news from the columns of the "Morning Post." Ordinarily I found none, but on that fortunate morning I made a strike rich and unexpected. The late T. P. O'Connor, reputed "Father of the House of Commons," conducted in those days a column in the "Morn ing Post" entitled "Men and Memories." On that particular morning, and for several mornings following,"Tay Pay's" column was devoted to Abraham Lincoln-not to his political activities but to the personal side of his career: to his sorrows, his repeated failures, his poverty, his great love for Ann Rutledge, and his tragic marriage to Mary Todd. I read the series with profound interest-and surprise. I had spent the first twenty years of my life in the Middle West, not far from the Lincoln country; and, in addition to that, I had always been keenly inte......