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151
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(LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.) MASTERS, EDGAR LEE. Autograph Manuscript
Signed, fair copy of his poem “Anne Rutledge,” beginning “Out of me unworthy and
unknown / The vibrations of deathless music.” Complete in 12 lines. 1 page, 4to;William
Marion Reedy owner’s label pasted to recto at lower right.
Np, nd
[600/900]
Ann Rutledge (1813-1825) and Abraham Lincoln lived in New Salem, IL, in 1831.
Lincoln expressed his intention to marry Rutledge after she seemed to have been abandoned by
her fiancé, but she was struck dead by a sudden illness in 1835. Lincoln’s law partner and
biographer,William H. Herndon, did much to dramatize the relationship between the enigmatic
president and the young woman, claiming that Lincoln never recovered from the grief caused by
Rutledge’s death.