mencken was told by a publisher there are four kind of books that never under any circumstances lose money in the united states. first, detective stories. secondly, novels in which the hero--the heroin is forcibly debauched by the hero. volumes on spiritualism, occultism and other such claptrap. and forth, books on lincoln. times change. so do profits and losses at publishing houses. but not, apparently, talking about books about abraham lincoln. and ethical american event's 200th birth day is being marked by an inundation of new lincoln books the likes of which few of us have ever seen. between 1865, and 2009, 14,000 titles and 2,000 juvenile books on lincoln have been published. launching a new biography of lincoln in 1922, former united states senator albert j. beveridge denied that the last word on lincoln had already been written by arguing that the first word has not been penned. to day the first words are still being written. lincoln books emerge with ever greater frequency. one a week, as every generation seeks to discover lincoln for himself. in some ways the past two decade