Laughing with Old Abe: Abraham Lincoln's Jokes by A.T. Kabambay
What's It About?
Lincoln was at a loss for words. The rising young statesman, aware that many did not regard him as a physically attractive man, shot back, “If I had two faces, would I be wearing this one?”It was in the heat of one of the famous Lincoln – Douglas debates in 1858 for the Illinois Senate seat that the Democrat incumbent Stephen Douglas accused Abraham Lincoln of waffling on his position on slavery, the most contentious topic of the times. At one point, he called Lincoln “two-faced.”
In a most unusual and highly entertaining biography entitled Laughing with Old Abe: Abraham Lincoln’s Jokes (Xulon Press) author A.T. Kabambay, a passionate historian and researcher whose specialty is Lincoln and the Civil War, presents a side of one of our most beloved presidents that most scholars and the general public never knew.
TRICKS UP HIS SLEEVE
For sure, our 16th U.S. president had his share of controversy and conflict, from personal family tragedies to the anxiety and tension of being Chief Commander during the great war that split our nation for years. Kabambay shows us a Lincoln who above all else was human and authentic more so than comedic, providing many anecdotes to illustrate how the man many know from his outward stoic persona dealt with the great weight of issues and decisions that would shape our country.
“Lincoln routinely chose humor to control the terrible stress he endured his entire life and also to defuse the tension, attract attention or get a message across,” writes Kabambay. “He had a physical and psychological need to laugh that prompted him to joke under any and all circumstances – even the most tragic.”
Take, for example, the meeting in 1865 aboard the River Queen on the James River in Hampton Roads, VA, to negotiate the Confederate surrender of the war. In this most solemn moment, as the Confederate delegate Alexander Stephens, a smallish man, removed his very large outer garment described as a mass of wooly material, leave it to Lincoln to pipe up, “Have you ever seen such a tiny pea come out of such a large pod?”
Or his reaction to a second assassination attempt in which both times the would-be killer put a hole through Lincoln’s hat. “It’s curious how they always aim at the head when the body makes a much easier target,” said Abe. “But don’t tell anyone!”
ALL IN THE DETAILS
Readers would not be wise to posture Lincoln simply as a class clown, and Kabambay marvels at and describes in detail the great man’s storytelling skills, often using an old yarn to mesmerize his audience and get a point across. Unlike the aging relative to which people roll their eyes when a long-winded story appears imminent, Lincoln’s children were always eager to hear his tales, as was his professional staff, who settled in for a good listen when they sensed one coming.
Lincoln was a very religious man, but he recognized that for whatever reasons people always questioned his faith. He breaks into the story about the blind woman who, after sniffing the air, confronts her husband and accuses him of being drunk. The husband, knowing his wife can’t see, says he has no idea where the smell is coming from. Relating the tale back to those who doubt him, he claims, “There is none so blind as the one who refuses to see!”
The book sets up the many stories with historical biography, tracking Lincoln’s life from growing up poor in a log cabin, to scrambling to educate himself, to working in a grocery store, starting his political career, and of course, becoming president at a most turbulent time for the country.
REAFFIRMING GREATNESS
Kabambay doesn’t lose sight of the qualities Lincoln is so well known for: his honesty (walking three miles to return 6 cents to a woman who had overpaid at his store), his intelligence and his shrewdness as a politician.
The author says all introductions and backstories in the book are proven historical facts, and the stories are based on anecdotes actually experienced or told by Lincoln. The book is supplemented with amusing illustrations by Chris J. Fredericks.
For a different yet fascinating take on the man who was voted America’s best president, read Laughing with Old Abe: Abraham Lincoln’s Jokes. In a book geared for all ages from young to adult, you’ll see how one man, with so much on his shoulders, was able to put his heavy burdens into a lighter context, reaffirming his greatness and showing that just like the rest of us, he’s only human.
