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I got this sentence from the book of "At Lincoln's Side: John Hay's Civil War Correspondence and Selected Writings".

There were few who had not a story worth listening to.

I think did not have is correct. Is had not available in a literary style?

tasira
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    Probably addressed by J Lawler at Why do not we ask negative questions without ... . << ... If there is no auxiliary verb, a further rule gets involved:

    Do-Support, the rule that supplies the auxiliary do to use with these rules. (Auxiliary do carries the tense, so the main verb is changed to an infinitive) In modern English Do-Support is obligatory; i.e, we can't ask questions like

    *Slept you 8 hours yesterday? any more. >> ...

     – Edwin Ashworth Feb 21 '20 at 11:23
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    Here, this is certainly archaic/literary style, and as such acceptable. 'Have' is the main verb (= 'possess', 'have with them'), not the auxiliary. // I'd say do-support isn't quite obligatory nowadays; 'Have we not a duty to these people to ...' is acceptable, and 'rhetorical', almost 'epic', rather than 'literary' in register. [226 000 Google hits for "Have we not a duty to"] – Edwin Ashworth Feb 21 '20 at 11:28

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