Mrs. Lincoln
Subtitle: a life
By: Catherine Clinton.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 415
ISBN-13: 9780060760403
Subjects: Lincoln, Mary Todd, -- 1818-1882; Lincoln, Abraham, -- 1809-1865 -- Family; Presidents' spouses -- United States -- Biography
Genres: Biography.
Description: Historian Catherine Clinton draws on important new research to illuminate the remarkable life of Mary Lincoln. Her story is inextricably tied with her husband's presidency, yet her life is an extraordinary chronicle on its own. From an aristocratic Kentucky family, she was an educated, well-connected Southern daughter, and when she married a Springfield lawyer she became a Northern wife--an experience mirrored by thousands of her countrywomen. The Lincolns endured many personal setbacks, including the death of a child and defeats in two Senate races. Mrs. Lincoln herself suffered scorching press attacks. The assassination of her husband haunted her for the rest of her life. Her downward spiral resulted in a brief but traumatizing involuntary incarceration in an asylum and exile in Europe during her later years. One of the most tragic and mysterious of nineteenth-century figures, Mary Lincoln and her story symbolize the pain and loss of Civil War America.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 337-394) and index.
Table of contents: title: Kentucky homes; title: Making her own hoops to jump through; title: Athens of the West; title: "Crimes of matrimony"; title: "Profound wonders"; title: Playing for keeps; title: Enlarging our borders; title: Hope that all will yet be well; title: Dashed hopes; title: Grand designs gone awry; title: Struggling against sorrows; title: Gloomy anniversaries; title: Divided houses; title: With victory in view; title: Waking nightmares; title: Widow of the martyr president; title: Rising from the ashes; title: Smoldering embers