LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865), President . Autograph manuscript leaf with integral signature ("Abraham Lincoln") from Lincoln's earliest surviving autograph manuscript, his home-made "Sum-Book," used as an adolescent schoolboy. [Pigeon Creek, Spencer County, Indiana, 1824-1826]. 2pp., an irregular oblong (5¼ x 7¾ in. approx.), one side with neat mathematical calculations and five lines of verse; verso with numerical calculations. Losses at margins affecting several letters in bottom-most line, paper evenly age-toned. "ABRAHAM LINCOLN HIS HAND AND PEN": LINCOLN'S EARLIEST HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT. A LEAF FROM HIS HOME-MADE "SUM-BOOK" USED AS A SCHOOLBOY, CONTAINING POETRY AND ONE OF LINCOLN'S EARLIEST FULL SIGNATURES. PROVIDING A UNIQUE WINDOW INTO THE EARLY EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS OF THE FRONTIER BOY AND FUTURE PRESIDENT On one side of the leaf, beneath arithmetical calculations, Lincoln has written: "Abraham Lincoln his hand and pen he will be good but God knows When." Herndon, the first biographer to examine the "Sum-Book" leaves, regularized capitalization and spelling, added punctuation and rendered the lines as follows: "Abraham Lincoln, his hand and pen, he will be good, but God knows when." It is now known that this particular quatrain did not originate with the young frontiersman. It appears to be an inscription traditional in the family, as Albert J. Beveridge discovered a virtually identical inscription in Mordecai Lincoln's personal copy of Bailey's Dictionary , where the name "Abraham" was replaced by the name "Mordecai" (cited by Basler 1:2fn.). On the rest of the leaf, Lincoln has penned the first two stanzas of a hymn by Isaac Watts (1674-1748; No.58 in Book 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs ). Its tone of melancholy longing must have struck a strong chord with the young Lincoln. The swift passage of time and the changes wrought by it constitutes a theme Lincoln reverted to in his own later poetical efforts (especially the verses "My child-hood's home I see again And sadden with the view..."; See Basler 1:376-379). Literally rendered, spelling errors preserved, and with a few missing letters supplied from Herndon's 1865 transcription, they read: "Time What an em[p]ty vaper tis and days how swift they are swift as an Indian arr[ow] fly on like a shooting star the presant moment Just [is here] then slides away in h[as]te that we [can] never say they['re ours] but [only say] th[ey]'re past." Herndon gives a more polished rendition (Herndon and Weik, Life of Lincoln , ed. Paul M. Angle, pp.36-37): "Time, what an empty vapor 'tis, And days how swift they are: Swift as an Indian arrow-- Fly on like a shooting star. The present moment just is here, Then slides away in haste, That we can never say they're ours, But only say they're past." Lincoln's Earliest Written Records "The earliest Lincoln documents come from Indiana, fugitive pages from a sum book in which the boy practiced arithmetic...If the pages suggest youthful diligence, they also betray an irreverent streak and a somewhat darker outlook than sentimentalists later described in this period of his life" (M. Neely, The Last Best Hope of Earth , p.5). Lincoln's "Sum-Book," as it is usually termed, consists of a modest handful of frayed leaves, two of which are dated 1824 and one 1826. These date from Lincoln's adolescent years on the Indiana frontier, where his family had settled in 1816. In it, the young man--aged 15 to 17--copied mathematical exercises (multiplication, simple and compound interest) plus tables of measurement (wet, dry and land). As biographer David Herbert Donald writes, Lincoln "was able to sew together a few sheets of paper into a little notebook in which he wrote down his more advanced problems and his answers to them. Here he recorded complicated calculations involving multiplication (like 34,567,834 x 24,423) and division (such as 4,375,701 divided by 2,432), which he completed with exceptional accuracy" ( Education Defective: Abrah
LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865), President . Autograph manuscript leaf with integral signature ("Abraham Lincoln") from Lincoln's earliest surviving autograph manuscript, his home-made "Sum-Book," used as an adolescent schoolboy. [Pigeon Creek, Spencer County, Indiana, 1824-1826]. 2pp., an irregular oblong (5¼ x 7¾ in. approx.), one side with neat mathematical calculations and five lines of verse; verso with numerical calculations. Losses at margins affecting several letters in bottom-most line, paper evenly age-toned. "ABRAHAM LINCOLN HIS HAND AND PEN": LINCOLN'S EARLIEST HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT. A LEAF FROM HIS HOME-MADE "SUM-BOOK" USED AS A SCHOOLBOY, CONTAINING POETRY AND ONE OF LINCOLN'S EARLIEST FULL SIGNATURES. PROVIDING A UNIQUE WINDOW INTO THE EARLY EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS OF THE FRONTIER BOY AND FUTURE PRESIDENT On one side of the leaf, beneath arithmetical calculations, Lincoln has written: "Abraham Lincoln his hand and pen he will be good but God knows When." Herndon, the first biographer to examine the "Sum-Book" leaves, regularized capitalization and spelling, added punctuation and rendered the lines as follows: "Abraham Lincoln, his hand and pen, he will be good, but God knows when." It is now known that this particular quatrain did not originate with the young frontiersman. It appears to be an inscription traditional in the family, as Albert J. Beveridge discovered a virtually identical inscription in Mordecai Lincoln's personal copy of Bailey's Dictionary , where the name "Abraham" was replaced by the name "Mordecai" (cited by Basler 1:2fn.). On the rest of the leaf, Lincoln has penned the first two stanzas of a hymn by Isaac Watts (1674-1748; No.58 in Book 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs ). Its tone of melancholy longing must have struck a strong chord with the young Lincoln. The swift passage of time and the changes wrought by it constitutes a theme Lincoln reverted to in his own later poetical efforts (especially the verses "My child-hood's home I see again And sadden with the view..."; See Basler 1:376-379). Literally rendered, spelling errors preserved, and with a few missing letters supplied from Herndon's 1865 transcription, they read: "Time What an em[p]ty vaper tis and days how swift they are swift as an Indian arr[ow] fly on like a shooting star the presant moment Just [is here] then slides away in h[as]te that we [can] never say they['re ours] but [only say] th[ey]'re past." Herndon gives a more polished rendition (Herndon and Weik, Life of Lincoln , ed. Paul M. Angle, pp.36-37): "Time, what an empty vapor 'tis, And days how swift they are: Swift as an Indian arrow-- Fly on like a shooting star. The present moment just is here, Then slides away in haste, That we can never say they're ours, But only say they're past." Lincoln's Earliest Written Records "The earliest Lincoln documents come from Indiana, fugitive pages from a sum book in which the boy practiced arithmetic...If the pages suggest youthful diligence, they also betray an irreverent streak and a somewhat darker outlook than sentimentalists later described in this period of his life" (M. Neely, The Last Best Hope of Earth , p.5). Lincoln's "Sum-Book," as it is usually termed, consists of a modest handful of frayed leaves, two of which are dated 1824 and one 1826. These date from Lincoln's adolescent years on the Indiana frontier, where his family had settled in 1816. In it, the young man--aged 15 to 17--copied mathematical exercises (multiplication, simple and compound interest) plus tables of measurement (wet, dry and land). As biographer David Herbert Donald writes, Lincoln "was able to sew together a few sheets of paper into a little notebook in which he wrote down his more advanced problems and his answers to them. Here he recorded complicated calculations involving multiplication (like 34,567,834 x 24,423) and division (such as 4,375,701 divided by 2,432), which he completed with exceptional accuracy" ( Education Defective: Abrah
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