Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made Man

Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made Man
In1848, John Frost posed this definition: "A self-made man means one who has rendered himself accomplished, eminent, rich, or great by his own unaided efforts." The seeds of self-made success lay within the individual rather than society or a family. As Ralph Waldo Emerson summed it up, "the reason why this or that man is fortunate is not to be told. It lies in the man; that is all anybody can tell you about it." Lincoln, of course, became the quintessential self-made man, as well as the greatest American cultural hero of all.