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Bucks County Man Pens Book On Abraham Lincoln And His 2 Mothers

By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Bucks County man is out with a new book on Abraham Lincoln, which may be especially poignant on Mother's Day.

Lincoln had two mothers, Nancy who died when he was nine, and Sarah, a widow Lincoln's father married.

Jeff Oppenheimer, author of That Nation May Live, gets into the hidden corners of Lincoln's youth by recreating and expanding an actual conversation.

"Two people that knew Lincoln as well as anyone and more or less like bookends in his life, Sarah Bush Lincoln, his step-mother and William H. Herndon, his law partner, who was friends with him for 30 years and law partners for 16."

Oppenheimer found that Sarah encouraged her stepson's intellect despite resistance from his father, part of what led to father-son estrangement.

"So this lens of motherhood really presents the real Lincoln."

Which Oppenheimer says is pretty much the fellow we revere.

The book is available on Amazon.com is paperback and Kindle editions.

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