On the 9th day of Christmas, Babbitt's Books gave to me . . .

. . . a signed, first edition of David Herbert Donald's famous biography of Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln. 

Donald was an eminent Lincoln scholar, and taught at several universities throughout his long career, including Oxford, Harvard and Princeton. He was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize twice, so it will not surprise you to learn that Eric Foner (president of the American Historical Association!) called Lincoln the best biography of Abraham Lincoln in existence. 

Our particular copy is signed on the title page by Donald. Both book and dust jacket are in as-new condition. 


Other Lincoln books in our possession that will make good Christmas gifts are Mark E. Neely, Jr.'s The Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd Lincoln (1993) and Allen C. Guelzo's Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2004). Some scholars speculate that Mary Todd Lincoln, who was in and out of sanitariums her entire life, suffered from bipolar disorder. Three of her four sons died during her lifetime, which may have contributed to her depression and erratic behavior. 


These three books, though, are only a small sample of our Lincoln collection. We have dozens of books in stock right now that discuss the 16th President's life and various aspects of his administration. 

Come on by! Time is running out. (At least for Christmas shopping.)

Title: Lincoln 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Year: 1995

Features: Signed, first edition

Condition: Very Good+ / Very Good dust jacket

Price: $40

Title: The Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd Lincoln 

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press

Year: 1993

Condition: Very Good / Very Good- dust jacket

Price: $4

Title: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Year: 2004

Features: Signed, second printing

Condition: Very Good+ / Very Good+ dust jacket

Price: $18

On the 22nd day of Christmas, Babbitt's Books gave to me . . .

. . . a $35 copy of Always The Young Strangers, signed by Carl Sandburg. 

Those of you not familiar with Sandburg's oeuvre will know him vaguely as a Chicago poet, but his prolificacy extended beyond verse. He won one of his three Pulitizer Prizes for a multi-volume biography of fellow Illinois resident, Abraham Lincoln. The American fairy tales that he dreamed up for his three young daughters were collected in a 1922 anthology called Rootabaga Stories. Folk music fascinated him, and long before he ever published any poetry, he taught himself guitar and played popular folk songs to an eager audience.

Always The Young Strangers is the account of his life, from his childhood in Galesburg, Illinois to his enlistment in the 6th Illinois Infantry during the Spanish-American War. (He never saw combat, in case you are curious.) Sandburg has signed the book on the half-title page with a felt-tipped pen and dated the signature 1953. The name that appears above the date is the previous owner's. Her bookplate is on the verso of the front blank flyleaf, but it can probably be removed with care. There's even a tiny smudge near the 'g' in Sandburg's last name; perhaps a smudge from the great author himself? 

The endpapers of the book are illustrated with photographs of a young Sandburg and his parents. Galesburg figures heavily in this book: Chapter 2. is titled "The House on Berrien Street", Chapter 7. "Along Berrien Street", and Chapter 14. "Prairie Town."

Says Sandburg in Chapter 14., "This small town of Galesburg, as I look back at it, was a piece of the American Republic. Breeds and blood strains [stains?] that figure in history were there for me, as a boy, to see and hear in their faces and their ways of talking and acting" (280). 

This childhood home on Berrien Street has been turned into a museum, the Carl Sandburg Historic Site Association. The house is unimaginably tiny, a veritable doll's cottage. It is boggling to imagine Sandburg, his parents, and six siblings squeezed inside. Unfortunately, I visited in late 2008, when then-governor Rod Blagojevich had shut down Sandburg's childhood home and numerous other historic sites across Illinois, so I could only peer in the windows of the house and walk through the yard, where the ashes of Sandburg, his wife Lillian, and two of his daughters are buried. If you're a fan of Sandburg, a holiday jaunt up to Galesburg with your family and friends might be in order. 

Sorry for the small cell-phone picture, but holy cow! I'm sitting on the doorstep of Carl Sandburg's childhood home!

The only other thing I'd like to say about this book is that I've just managed to sell myself on it, so you'd better grab it before I do.

Title: Always The Young Strangers

Author: Carl Sandburg

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace and Company

Year: 1953

Features: Signed, Presumed First Edition

Condition: Very Good-

Price: $35