Baby Abe

This lullaby imagines scenes from Abraham Lincoln's life, from his 1809 winter arrival in the world to his third birthday (1812). Period objects, foods, verbal expressions and manners are twined into the text. Scenes described are typical of life on the Kaintuck (Kentucky) and Indiana frontiers. Research began with Carl Sandburg's two-volume biography; and, some years later, embraced the details of Sidney Blumenthal's A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849 (2016). Characters are generally true to history with the exception of the preacher, the tinsmith, the shoemaker, the Yarb Woman and the Widder. Although fictional, these characters are typical of individuals who would regularly visit remote homesteads.