The Life of Abraham LincolnAlthough other states such as Indiana claim his birth, most sources agree that Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a remote cabin in Hodgeville, Kentucky. In an interview during his campaign for the presidency in 1860 Lincoln described his boyhood as "the short and plain annals of the poor." (page 30). His father Thomas was a farmer who married Nancy Hanks, his mother, in 1806. Lincoln had a sister, Sarah, born in 1807. The Lincoln family was financially more comfortable than most, despite the common historical picture of complete poverty. They moved to Indiana because of the shaky land title system in Kentucky. Because the Lincolns arrived in Spencer County at the same time as the winter, Thomas only had time to build a "half camp." Made of logs and branches, it was only fenced on three sides, and on the fourth there was a roaring fire. The nearest water source was a mile away, and the family had to survive on the area's abundance of game. Less than two years after moving to Indiana, Mrs. Lincoln contracted a horrible frontier disease known as the "milk sickness." . Thomas Lincoln returned to Kentucky to find a new wife. On December 2 he married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with three children, and brought them all back to Indiana. Even though there were now eight people living in the little shelter, the Lincoln children, especially Abe, adored their new stepmother who played a key role in ensuring that Abe had at least a formal education, amounting to just under a year in All. . To support his family it was necessary for Abe to work for wages on nearby farms. achieve that he would read tenaciously" (p 56). Although his formal education had come to an end, his self-education had just begun. After a three-month barge trip down the Ohio and Mississippi, nineteen-year-old Lincoln returned to Indiana with an enthusiasm for the lifestyles he had just encountered. Unfortunately, his newfound joy did not last long as his sister Sarah died in childbirth on January 20, 1828. In 1830 the Lincoln family decided to leave Indiana in hopes of a better future in Illinois. Soon it was... middle of paper... I heard this only in connection with the name Lincoln."--Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)"In the days before antiseptic surgery, Lincoln had foreshadowed his own demise; his efforts to preserve the life of the nation had succeeded at the expense of his strongest limb." (p 446) My thoughts on the book I found this book interesting and was surprised that it wasn't another biography written in a documentary style. It was actually interesting to read due to Oates' creative writing style. And being a fact-based historical story, I learned a little about the lifestyle of the post-colonial period and of course the life of Lincoln himself, who I now know as a close relative because of the profound personal and external images expressed in this biography. Work Cited Oates, Stephen B. The Life of Abraham Lincoln About the Author Stephen B. Oates is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the author of eight other books, including The Fires of Jubilee and To Purge This Land with Blood His task in this biography was to perpetuate Lincoln as he was in the times in which he lived. His purpose for this biography was to bring the past into the present for us and his students.