The people's lore about Lincoln has through the years continued to grow and to assume ever greater importance both for what it tells about the man and the age in which he lived and for its amusement value. Even in our strident age, low-keyed humor, even the shrill attack, continues to entertain and inform.

The collection represented in this book is among the best and because of some entirely new material it increases the range of our appreciation. This second edition contains far more popular songs about Lincoln and his age. They are songs of Unionists, Copperheads and, of course, Secessionists. Most of these have not been collected and presented in one volume before.

Also reprinted generally for the first time since the War years are the amusing and interesting cartoons originally published in Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Magazine, which as clearly as any other single medium symbolize the pulse of a nation's feelings for its president. In many ways the most revealing pages from Leslie's are those in which Lincoln's assassination is announced alongside cures for pimples, other quack medicines and the other machinery of life.