Lincoln's Little Girl
Grade 5-8-"...If you will let your whiskers grow I will try and get [my brothers] to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin." So wrote Grace Bedell, 11, of Chatauqua County, New York, to Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Originally published in 1977, Trump's biography of Bedell is reissued here with new pencil illustrations. The author does a great deal to set the famous letter in context, offering near-exhaustive details with the thoroughness of a local historian. Bedell's missive is the thread that holds together the remaining story of her life-her husband George Billings's service in the Civil War, their move West to Kansas, the trials they faced there, and the ultimate disposition of the letter to a private collection now held by the Detroit Public Library. The account is dry at times; only Grace's letter, Lincoln's reply, and their later meeting will be of much interest to children. This story is briefer and more colorfully told in Burke Davis's Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers (Coward, 1979; o.p.). However, Trump's title will be of interest to those with a local connection or with a mammoth appetite for material concerning the 16th president.Sally Bates Goodroe, Houston Public LibraryCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.