“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history” (Lincoln 537). This popular statement
made by Abraham Lincoln represents a universal truth. Edgar Lee Masters’ work Spoon River
Anthology strongly sticks to this idea. The collection of poems illustrates the point of view of
deceased citizens contemplating about their lives in the fictional town Spoon River. Many
late-citizens are fictional while some others, like William H. Herndon, Hannah Armstrong and
Anne Rutledge, have clear similarities to real persons. It will be shown that Masters borrowed
the concepts of these three characters from history and that Abraham Lincoln is the link
between reality and fiction.