It is apparent at the very outset that the new "Life of
Abraham Lincoln," edited by Miss Ida M. Tarbell, the first
installment of which appears in McCLURE'S MAGAZINE for
the current month, will be one of the most important and
interesting contributions yet made to Lincoln literature, as
it will contain much matter hitherto unpublished, and will be
enriched with a large number of new illustrations. It will be
a study of Abraham Lincoln as a man, and thus will naturally
commend itself to the people.
The first installment covers about the first twenty-one years
of Lincoln's life, which were spent in Kentucky and Indiana.
The story is told very briefly, in simple, easy style, and
abounds with reminiscences secured from his contemporaries.
It is not only full of new things, but it is so distinct and
clear in local color that an interest attaches to it which is
not found in other biographies. A large part of this credit
must be awarded not alone to the text and to its careful
editing, but also to the numerous pictures which upon every
page illustrate the context and give the scenes of the
story. It is particularly rich in portraits. Among these are
portraits from an ambrotype taken at Macomb, Illinois, in
1858, during his debate with Douglas, the dress being the
same as that in which Lincoln made his famous canvass for
the Senate; a second from a photograph taken at Hannibal,
Missouri, in 1858; a third from an ambrotype taken at Urbana,
Illinois, in 1857; and a fourth from an ambrotype taken in a
linen coat at Beardstown, Illinois.
The picture, however, which will attract the greatest interest
is the frontispiece, from a daguerreotype which his son,
Robert Lincoln, thinks was taken when his father was
about forty years old. In this picture, which bears little
resemblance to any other known portraits, he is dressed with
scrupulous care. His hair is combed and brushed down with
something like youthful vanity, and he has a smooth, bright,
rather handsome face, and without sunken cheeks, strikingly
resembling in contour and the shape of the head some of the
early portraits of Ralph Waldo Emerson. It looks, however, as
if it had been taken at an earlier age than forty. As the only
portrait of Lincoln with a comparatively young face it will
be treasured by all his admirers, and his son has conferred
a distinct benefit by his courtesy in allowing it to be
reproduced.
There are numerous other portraits, among them those of the
Rev. Jesse Head, who married Lincoln's father and mother; of
Austin Gollaher, who was a boy friend of Lincoln in Kentucky,
and the only one now living; of his step-mother, Sarah Bush
Lincoln; of Josiah Crawford, whom Lincoln served in Indiana
as "hired boy;" of the well-known Dennis Hanks, cousin of
Lincoln's mother; of John Hanks, also a cousin; of Judge John
Pitcher, who assisted Lincoln in his earliest studies; and of
Joseph Gentry, the only boy associate of Lincoln in Indiana
now living. These portraits, in addition to the numerous views
of scenes connected with Lincoln's boyhood, add greatly to
the interest of the text. Mr. McClure, the proprietor of the
magazine, is certainly to be congratulated upon the successful
manner in which he has launched the opening chapters of the
new "Life of Lincoln." The remaining ones, running a whole
year, will be awaited with keen interest. It is said that
Miss Tarbell has found and obtained a shorthand report of his
unpublished but famous speech delivered at Bloomington, May
29, 1856, before the first Republican State convention ever
held in Illinois. This is a great find and a very important
addition to his published speeches. Many of those who heard
it have always claimed that it was the most eloquent speech he
ever made.
In an editorial in the "Standard-Union" of Brooklyn, Mr. Murat
Halstead expresses the general feeling of all who knew Lincoln:
The magazine gives an admirable engraving of this portrait
as the frontispiece, as "The earliest portrait of Abraham
Lincoln, from a daguerreotype taken when Lincoln was about
forty; owned by his son, the Hon. Robert T. Lincoln, through
whose courtesy it is here reproduced for the first time."
This is a very modest statement, considering the priceless
discovery it announces. The portrait does not show a man
"about forty" years old in appearance. "About" thirty would be
the general verdict, if it were not that the daguerreotype
was unknown when Lincoln was of that age. It does not seem,
however, that he could have been more than thirty-five, and
for that age the youthfulness of the portrait is wonderful.
This is a new Lincoln, and far more attractive, in a sense,
than anything the public has possessed. This is the portrait
of a remarkably handsome man.... The head is magnificent,
the eyes deep and generous, the mouth sensitive, the whole
expression something delicate, tender, pathetic, poetic. This
was the young man with whom the phantoms of romance dallied,
the young man who recited poems and was fanciful and
speculative, and in love and despair, but upon whose brow
there already gleamed the illumination of intellect, the
inspiration of patriotism. There were vast possibilities in
this young man's face. He could have gone anywhere and done
anything. He might have been a military chieftain, a novelist,
a poet, a philosopher, ah! a hero, a martyr--and, yes, this
young man might have been--he even was Abraham Lincoln! This
was he with the world before him. It is good fortune to have
the magical revelation of the youth of the man the world
venerates. This look into his eyes, into his soul--not before
he knew sorrow, but long before the world knew him--and to
feel that it is worthy to be what it is, and that we are
better acquainted with him and love him the more, is something
beyond price.
[Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1863.