ABSTRACT
Abraham Lincoln was a self-made man, nearly self-educated, and in the shadow of his career as one of the nations leading political figures and he was also what his associates in the press might have considered a self-styled journalist. Accounts of Lincoln's life, including one he wrote, retell stories not only of how the president was raised in a log cabin, but also of his love for writing. As an astute writer and inveterate storyteller, Lincoln's appreciation for the press grew, along with his skills as an orator on the stump. Lincoln grew professionally as an attorney, reading the law on his own, developing a fondness for politics, and becoming a formidable politician by melding his work as a writer to that of an effective orator. While keeping abreast of events in the nation's political evolution, Lincoln focused his legal career on the everyday concerns of his fellow Illinoisans.
