Francis B. Carpenter, Six Months at the White House

“ [115] may seem somewhat strange to say,” he continued, “but I never read an entire novel in my life!” Said Judge Harris, “Is it possible?” “Yes,” returned the President, “it is a fact. I once commenced ‘Ivanhoe,’ but never finished it.” This statement, in this age of the world, seems almost incredible — but I give the circumstance as it occurred.

However it may have been with regard to novels, it is very certain — as I have already illustrated — that he found time to read Shakspeare; and that he was also fond of certain kinds of poetry. N. P. Willis once told me, that he was taken quite by surprise, on a certain occasion when he was riding with the President and Mrs. Lincoln, by Mr. Lincoln, of his own accord, referring to, and quoting several lines from his poem entitled “Parrhasius.”

In the spring of 1862, the President spent several days at Fortress Monroe, awaiting military operations upon the Peninsula. As a portion of the Cabinet were with him, that was temporarily the seat of government, and he bore with him constantly the burden of public affairs. His favorite diversion was reading Shakspeare. One day (it chanced to be the day before the capture of Norfolk) as he sat reading alone, he called to his aide¹ in the adjoining room,--“You have been writing long enough, Colonel; come in here; I ”