Here are to be found articles about Abraham Lincoln in all his aspects, living and posthumous—the man himself, Lincoln tourism, the restoration of his Springfield house and neighborhood, Lincoln scholarship, Lincoln museums, scholarly controversies about his life, his life in work in central Illinois, considerations of him as a prose artist, and reviews of books, all as they were published mainly in Illinois Issues, Illinois Times, and Chicago's Reader.

 

Anyone living in Springfield finds it impossible not to stumble across Lincoln, literally. My parents, recently transplanted Beardstonians, rented an apartment about a block from Lincoln home in Springfield. Years later, my morning work routines took from my office downtown past the house at the way to the founding offices of Illinois Times, which were located within the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. The Lincolns' neighborhood became as familiar to me as my own. Family history researches later took me often to the restored Old State Capitol complex, site of the "House Divided" speech. 

I made no special effort to learn about the man until I was offered a job as a tour guide at a local Lincoln site. When I was an apprentice journalist, Lincoln and the house was much debated officially. History per se had little to do with these public conversations, much less scholarship. The topic was how to better capitalize on Lincoln to boost tourism, usually with side conversations about how to get someone else to pay for it. 

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As a mature journalist I wrote about him many times because there are so many Lincolns to write about. There is the official Lincoln, the popular Lincoln, the "real" Lincoln, the undiscovered Lincoln. Springfield has always thought better of itself than it deserved because he had lived there. (In fact, it was Springfield the state capital, not Springfield the town, in which Lincoln lived.) He made it a more interesting place, certainly, and I became grateful for that too. 

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NOTE: For articles about non-Lincoln-related history in Illinois, click "Illinois history" on the Topics menu. A few pieces about Lincoln tourism can be found on the "Springfield" page.

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Of the People and for the People—But Never Like Them

Lincoln and the Springfield democracy

"Dyspepsiana"  Illinois Times February 12, 2015

No Mere Bump on a Log

Logan Hay, once Springfield’s best-known citizen, is forgotten

"Dyspepsiana"  Illinois Times  December 21, 2017

“Someone from Outside”

Lincoln scholars

"Dyspepsiana"  Illinois Times  February 4, 2010

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Holy Inkwells

Turning Lincoln stuff into sacred relics

"Dyspepsiana"  Illinois Times  February 11, 2010