CITIZEN OF NEW SALEM

A moving chronicle, evocative, poetic- covering the formative years of the young Lincoln, from 21 to 28, written in celebration of Lincoln's first inauguration, March 4, 1861. During those years in the frontier settlement of New Salem, Lincoln was often uncertain, at loose ends, jobless, insecure. He had come there as a flatboatman; he stayed on to work in a general store, he was hesitant about mixing with people who seemed socially more experienced and better educated. Mentor Graham agreed to teach him, introduced him to new areas of knowledge, loaned him books-and in the Graham home he experienced some of the amenities of gracious living that opened yet another side of life to him. It was in these years he took his first faltering steps into politics, into the study of law, into the areas of pitting his wits against those more experienced in debate than he. Beautifully done this recreates a segment of the America of those days. And Douglas Gorsline's muted soft pencil drawings add stature to a fine piece of book making. Book-of-the-Month co-selection with Science and Government.