Excerpt from A Catalogue of Lincolniana: With an Essay on Lincoln Autographs Abraham Lincoln was a prolific writer. Specimens of his handwriting are extant from the days when as a school boy he began to write and cypher, until the very day of his death, under which date an infrequent signature comes now and then into market. Not less than five times he wrote his youthful jingle: Abraham Lincoln, His hand and pen; He will be good, But God knows when. He may have learned this from his father, who, as a young man may have copied it from one James Wilson when the latter was under indictment charged with counterfeiting, and Thomas Lincoln was employed to guard him. Wilson used this jingle, and became associated with the Lincoln family (for he was held not guilty of the charge against him) and his daughter married John Hanks who later split rails with Abraham Lincoln. That quatrain, popular at the time, Abraham Lincoln picked up as a lad and wrote again and again. He wrote remarkably well, too, considering the general nature of his schooling and the implements with which he had to write. The home-made ink has faded, but is still clear; and the goose-quill pens, not always well pointed, served to make a signature unmistakably genuine. As a boy he signed "Abraham Lincoln," never "Abe Lincoln" or "Abram Lincoln." Later he almost always signed his letters "A. Lincoln" and reserved "Abraham Lincoln" for his documents. Once in a long time to a very near friend he signed "Lincoln." In this form he signed his love-letters to Mary Owens, and sometimes in a legal matter he signed a brief letter, "Lincoln." Lincoln wrote slowly and carefully. He did everything else in the same way. His mind and body both moved slowly. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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