[Ads-l] Bogus Lincoln quote?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks, Stephen.

I still wonder why GB does not reveal a more recent  authoritative text.

JL

On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 9:06 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Bogus Lincoln quote?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Nicolay and Hay 1902 vol. 2 p. 574:
> "In regard to his great book [a Bible given to him, Sept. 7, 1864], I have
> =
> but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man."
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society ... on behalf of Jonathan Lighter ...
> Sent: Friday, September 4, 2015 7:31 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] Bogus Lincoln quote?
>
> Someone opposing the issuance of gay-marriage licenses in Kentucky was seen
> on CNN holding up a sign that said, "God's best gift to man is the Bible.
> --Lincoln."
>
> The assertion was made more authoritative for being accompanied by a
> portrait of Lincoln like that on a five-dollar bill.
>
> Google Books doesn't support the claim that Lincoln ever wrote or said
> these words, though of course they may be some kind of paraphrase.
>
> The quotation surfaces (in GB) in 1896, when the free-thinker Robert J.
> Ingersoll denied its genuineness in a letter to a Mr. Seip, who had
> presented it.
>
> According to the _Encyclopedia of American Religious Experience_, Lincoln
> uttered the words in September, 1864, when some African-American citizens
> of Baltimore presented him with a Bible.
>
> The quote has  been repeated mostly in  Christian publications - but
> seemingly not by Lincoln editors or biographers.
>
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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