Mary, Mrs. A. Lincoln by Janis Cooke Newman – 621 pages
Book Blurb:
Mary Todd Lincoln is one of history’s most misunderstood and enigmatic women. The first president’s wife to be called First Lady, she was a political strategist, a supporter of emancipation, and a mother who survived the loss of three children and the assassination of her beloved husband. Yet she also ran her family into debt, held seances in the White House, and was committed to an insane asylum. In Janis Cooke Newman’s debut novel, Mary Todd Lincoln shares the story of her life in her own words. Writing from Bellevue Place asylum, she takes readers from her tempestuous childhood in a slaveholding Southern family through the years after her husband’s death. A dramatic tale filled with passion and depression, poverty and ridicule, infidelity and redemption, Mary allows us entry into the inner, intimate world of this brave and fascinating woman.
My Review: 4.5 stars
I will never look at my $5 dollar bills the same!
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Two years ago my book club did a series on women/wives, e.g., The Reliable Wife, The Inconvient Wife, The 19th Wife, etc. Not on the required reading list was Mary, Mrs. A. Lincoln, which was very unfortunate for our group. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and feel it was probably the best of the whole lot.
Marilyn B.