The Graysons

Excerpt from The Graysons: A Story of Illinois

I had thought to close up the cycle of my stories of life in the Mississippi Valley with Roxy, which was published in 1878. But when I undertook by request of the alitor to write a short story for The Century Magazine, and to found it on a legendary account of one of President Lincoln's trials, the theme grew on my hands until the present novel was the result. It was written mostly at Nervi, near Genoa, where I could not by any possibility have verified the story I had received about 1867 from one of Lincoln's old neighbors. To have investigated the accuracy of my version of the anec dote would have been, indeed, to fly in the face and eyes of providence, for popular tradition is itself an artist rough hewing a story to the novelist's hands. During the appear ance of this novel in serial form I have received many letters from persons acquainted in one way or another with the actors and sufferers in the events, of which these here related are the ideal counterparts. Some of these letters contain in formation or relate incidents of so much interest that I have it in mind to insert them in an appendix to some later edition.

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