ABE & ANN is a novel based on a little-known love affair on the American frontier in the 1830’s.  When an awkward and poorly-dressed stranger gets his boat stuck on the mill dam in little New Salem, Illinois, he meets an auburn-haired young woman, feisty and fed-up with propriety.  She is frontier royalty, the lively, literate and funny 18-year-old daughter of the founder of the rough little frontier village, and he is straight off his daddy’s farm with jug ears and one change of clothes.

Homely and poor, but full of high ambition, the young Abraham Lincoln finds work in the village and courts the dazzling red-haired Ann Rutledge who comes into his life like a revelation. In the spell of their feelings, the lovers question the limits in their lives and boldly dream of a better future. But she is engaged to another man.

Readers who enjoyed Doris Kearns Goodwin’s bestselling Lincoln book,Team of Rivals, Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster film, Lincoln, and George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo will marvel again at this very different and compelling tale of Lincoln as a young man.

Not a grand historical treatment but a lyrical telling of a deeply personal tale, ABE AND ANN dares to give readers an earnest but untutored Lincoln whose humanity every reader can share, who was weak before he was strong, frightened before he was bold, and deeply in love with a woman who, despite their passionate encounters, would never be his… or would she?

Author Gary Moore's website is www.garymoore.news