Much has been written about Abraham Lincoln. Much less has been written about his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. During her lifetime, especially during her husband’s years as President, she was frequently maligned. Some of the bad press she garnered was at least somewhat justified; she did spend quite a lot of money redecorating the White House, while the country was at war. While she came from a fairly wealthy family, and achieved her dream of becoming First Lady, she also had many trials and much grief in her life. In many ways, it is not surprising that her surviving son felt that he needed to have her committed to a mental institution in her later years.
This book alternates between Mary’s early life, her life as First Lady, and the last few years of her life. Her story is told by her sisters Elizabeth, Frances, Ann, and her half-sister Emilie. Each sister had her own perspective on Mary’s personality, and whether or not they felt her son’s actions were justified. We learn that several other siblings become estranged due to the Civil War, and several of the brothers and half-brothers die as a result of the conflict. Again, these things happened to many other families at this point in time, but few others had their family divisions discussed in the press.
Mary’s troubling behavior after Lincoln’s death was certainly a challenge for her family. Psychology was very much in its infancy, and while there were treatments for those judged insane, there was quite a difference of opinion among professionals as to what insanity looked like, and what the treatments should be. It’s no wonder Mary’s own family couldn’t agree. While this book is, according to the author, “a work of fiction inspired by history”, she deftly illustrates the challenges any family in this time period would have faced dealing with irrational behavior by a family member.
If this was your family, how would you research them? One of the benefits of researching someone famous is that not only is there the possibility that someone else has already written about them, but there is a strong likelihood that their letters, and maybe the letters and papers of their friends and family members, may be preserved in an archive somewhere. As for those with mental illness, you might find court cases trying to determine their fate; there could be newspaper coverage as well. If they happened to be institutionalized during a census year, they should be enumerated in the facility.