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Mrs. Lincoln LP: A Life (2009)

by Catherine Clinton(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0061719749 (ISBN13: 9780061719745)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

HarperLuxe

review 1: I felt like I learned a lot about the Lincolns as a couple - from a book that didn't totally trash Mary. She's a hard one, but reading about their early life together, especially, was illuminating. The book doesn't try to stretch the story - although it definitely tries to take Mary in the best light, but doesn't shirk from the fact that she was a pretty hard person to be around. And made a lot of bad choices. I had no idea about the end of her life - she spent years living in Europe, after she got out of the asylum. Lots of great detail, but not too much. More photos would've been interesting.
review 2: It is what the title suggests - the life of Mary Todd Lincoln. I went to Springfield and went to everything there was to see on President Lincoln and Mary and ... morethere is a lot. Between the museums, the free printed material given out, other books I've read and what I learned in school, I'm not sure I needed to read another book about Abe but was curious as to whether there was some additional information on Mary. I talked to numerous people and read reviews and got suggestions from the people at the museums as to which book might give me the most information. I was leaning toward Jean Baker's "Mary Todd Lincoln" but the staff at the Presidential Museum felt that this book had some newer info since it has been 20 years since Baker's book was written. I ended up getting this one and "The Madness of Mary Lincoln" which I'll read next but back to this one.....I was not very impressed with this book. Perhaps because I had just visited everything and just read about all of it, I felt I wasn't really getting any new information about Mary's mental health which is what I was interested in primarily. I may get more of that from the "The Madness" - we'll see. The problem with this book is the writing. It is just not very enjoyable to read. Something about the way she put the book together is just wrong - lots of repetition and just rather confusing. I'm thinking the Baker book would have given enough information and perhaps been a more enjoyable read. less

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