OUR VERY ILLUSTRIOUS BROTHER, ABRAHAM LINCOLN

New Castle, Delaware and Washington, D.C.: Oak Knoll Press and the Library of the Supreme Council, 33°, S.J., 2007. hardcover. Lincoln, Abraham. 8.5 x 11 inches. hardcover. 174 pages. A Bibliography of the Louis D. Carman Lincolniana Collection in the Library of the Supreme Council, 33°, S.J. Edited by Joan K. Sansbury. With a Foreword by Jack E. Hightower. First edition. Published two years in advance of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth (February 12, 2009), this bibliography will be, for Abraham Lincoln scholars and enthusiasts, "a glowing candle on the birthday cake." The volume features approximately 1,000 entries, over 100 images of covers and title pages, and brief excerpts about President Lincoln from many of the publications. The House of the Temple Library possesses one of the nation's finest collections of Lincolniana. In addition to a foreword and an introduction, the book includes, as an appendix, a 26-page facsimile of Lincoln collector and scholar Dr. L. D. Carman's pamphlet "Abraham Lincoln, Freemason." Lincoln was not a Mason, but he "personified the cause of liberty and human fraternity" and in many other respects embodied principles that Freemasons hold dear. This book is the third in an ongoing series of bibliographies authored by Larissa Watkins and co-published by Oak Knoll Press and the Library of the Supreme Council.