Honest Abe! It's at the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago

For the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, if it happened in 1863 it's current news.

Especially if it's all about Abe.

If you want Lincoln you got Lincoln at this Chicago bookstore. Lincoln pictures. Lincoln letters. Lincoln autographs. Lincoln items. Lincoln writings. And thousands and thousands of books about Lincoln.

Sorry, no Lincoln Logs.

Whether your interest in our sixteenth President of the United States is scholarly or causal, this is your Lincoln reading room.

The Abraham Lincoln Book Shop opened in 1938, and has gained a reputation for the source to go for those interested in Lincoln's life and times.

In addition to the material on Lincoln, the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, is the location of the first Civil War Roundtable, a group of national and international people who meet to examine Lincoln material and books.

When I visited not long ago I looked over at the original "round table".

The shop is divided into sections, with rare books behind locked cabinets and more common volumes easily assible. The prices for the books run a range from five dollars on up. Elegant display cases have signed letters and other rare documents.

What if you want to see the movie? The Abraham Lincoln Book Shop stocks a collection of CDs and DVDs. Maps, Atlases and other Lincoln related gift items are available.

Despite the subdued and hushed overtones, this is not an Abraham Lincoln museum. New works by authors on Lincoln are for sale right next to foot thick leather bound books from the last century. . Some are thick tomes with thousands of footnotes, and some like author Julie M. Fenster's "The Case of Abraham Lincoln: A Story of Adultery, Murder and the Making of a Great President" are for the benefit of those more interested in Lincoln the man.

The staff is what makes the store a valuable resource for serious Lincoln students and the average Lincoln-head.

They know their Lincoln, and are history and publishing experts. So when the errant piece of Lincolniana shows up in your family's attic trunk they can appraise it and tell you if you have a rare treasure or something for the next garage sale.

When I asked about Lincoln's "Lost Speech", an impassioned talk he gave in Bloomington, Illinois, on the abolition of slavery, the staffer didn't hesitate. He said it hadn't been found. I'm still going home to search the basement.

The staff will make suggestions and offer guidance no matter what aspect of Lincoln holds your interest.

There are even "Virtual Book Signings", where Lincoln authors are web cast live, and the net audience can watch and even ask questions. And of course order the author autographed book.

Lincoln valued education, and he would be proud to find a book shop that dedicates itself to helping anybody from the tenured professor to the ordinary Joe, though modest man that he was, he might be flustered that the shop would be "all about Abe".

Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Inc., 357 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60610. Phone 312.944.3085.