Abraham Lincoln is one of America’s most esteemed past presidents. Every school child learns about his humble upbringing in a log cabin, how he walked miles to borrow a book, how he read by the light of a kerosene lantern. Physically Lincoln was tall and gangly, with a hollow face and unruly hair. Yet in spite of his awkwardness, modest means, and lack of formal education, he rose to the highest office in the land. There he liberated millions of enslaved people and led the nation to a "new birth of freedom". In the 2000s I attended four conventions of the Association of Lincoln Presenters, an organization of men and women who are passionate about the Great Emancipator.