The Lincoln Reader

New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1947. Hardcover. 8vo. Grey cloth, pictorial dust jacket. xii, 564pp. Illustrations. Near fine/very good. Mild jacket edgewear and several small edge chips, with jacket spine slightly sunned as usual. Just a book club edition of this fine standard anthology -- but bearing a choice autograph addition: Tipped to an inner flyleaf is an excellent content Typed Letter Signed from Angle, 1p, 8¼" X 11", Springfield, IL, 1945 March 26. Addressed to John Valentine, partner at Chicago's well-known Abraham Lincoln Book Shop. Near fine. On "Illinois State Historical Library" letterhead that cites Angle as "State Historian," he chats cordially about Civil War matters. In part: "Why don't you send down the letter from Grant to Washburne on approval? I wish I could scour the book shops and dealers' stocks for items like this, but I simply can't take the time that it requires...." Always seeking to enlarge the Illinois State Historical Society's membership, he also notes: "How about getting us the membership lists of the Westerners, Friends of Literature, and Chicago Literary Society for Historical Society circularization, or persuading the secretaries of those organizations to mail out our membership application blanks? We have taken in a good many new members in the last three months, but if we are going to run our membership from 1,100 to 1,500 this year we will have to keep at it...." Signed simply "Paul" in black ink.