Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln famously had a horribly tough childhood under an uncouth rustic father, Thomas.

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In sketches of pioneer life in that same locale, Francis Grierson portrayed a representative farmer, Zack Caverly, who explained, “My ole daddy larnt me to go through this sorrowin’ vale like the varmints do - easy en nat’ral like, never gallopin’ when ye kin lope, en never lopin’ when ye kin lay down. It’s a heap easier.” Thomas, in short, was a classic Southern backcountry cracker (a term originating in northern Britain). Often of Celtic background, crackers were famously easygoing, improvident, unacquisitive, lazy, and restless. They preferred to spend their days hunting, fishing, and loafing rather than farming. They had little use for education and were often illiterate.

-- Michael Burlingame, “Abraham Lincoln: A Life”

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The First Folios of Shakespeare's Plays

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First folios of Shakespeare’s plays are among the world’s rarest books, intensely scrutinized by scholars for what their sometimes-minute variations — each copy is different — reveal about the playwright’s intentions.

Now a previously unknown folio has surfaced at a small library in northern France, bringing the world’s known total of surviving first folios to 233.

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Few scholars have yet seen the book. But its discovery among holdings inherited from a long-defunct Jesuit college is already being hailed as a potential source of fresh insight into everything from tiny textual variants to the question of Shakespeare’s connection to Catholic culture.

-- JENNIFER SCHUESSLER at The New York Times

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The articles takes note that there are no manuscripts of any of Shakespeare's plays.

Sunday

Pop has gone. To Kay's. But only for the day. He will be back tomorrow. Still, I kind of hunger to do something special. But what? I am masturbated out, frankly. How about a DVD and frozen pizza tonight? That is probably about as wild as I can get, but I cannot say that I am thrilled by the idea. I guess I should just enjoy the peace and quiet and do my thing with my books and blogs.

Though, I feel a little desperation to want to call over a pretty enough girl. But that's probably at least a couple of hundred dollars, which is about a hundred and fifty dollars more than I got, and I'd probably only get scammed. This is actually kind of a new feeling, or at least it has been years since I have felt something like this, feeling it this intensely, this aching hunger. Usually, I guess I know that it is not a real option, so that I do not even think about it; it does not even really come to mind. But I am feeling this hot need so strongly now. Maybe when I get back to my Lincoln book, this mood will lose some of its ferocity.

Norman Mailer

“For Christ’s sake it’s precisely because I am a professional writer that I write such bad letters. I hate the thought of losing a good phrase or turning a sentence nicely when it isn’t for keeps.”

-- Norman Mailer