Over the years I’ve collected hundreds of books about Abraham Lincoln, though with thousands of books written about him I have a long way to go before I run out of options. Having the money to collect more and the shelf space to store more, well, those are different questions altogether. As of this writing (5/25/12) I have 644 titles in my collection. However, a title could be multiple volumes. For example, my 10-volume set of Nicolay and Hay’s “Abraham Lincoln: A History” published in 1890 counts only as one “title.”
Some quick numbers:
111 = Number of books signed by the author (many directly to me)
273 = Number of confirmed first editions
80 = Number of first editions that are signed by the author
62 = Number of books that have pre-1900 copyright dates
1834 = Oldest copyright date in my collection
Of course, others have a bigger collection than I do. Recently the Ford’s Theatre Center for Education and Leadership unveiled its 34-foot tower of Lincoln books. While the tower repeats 205 actual titles, it holds about 6,800 books – a fraction of the estimated 15,000 books written about Lincoln.
Clearly I need to step up the pace of my book collecting.
Check out my Abraham Lincoln page.
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