Mary Lincoln Demystified

Frequently Asked Questions about Abraham's Wife
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8093-3869-6
Verlag: Southern Illinois University Press

Buch, Englisch, 320 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 226 mm, Gewicht: 567 g

Answering the most enigmatic questions about Mary Lincoln’s life

After portraying Mary Todd Lincoln in hundreds of performances and giving lectures over a more than thirty-year career, Donna D. McCreary has fielded every imaginable inquiry about the First Lady. Gathered here, readers will find answers to the most frequently asked questions to come from live audiences. This first question-and-answer book arises directly from a public’s enduring curiosity with one the country’s most important historical figures. Decades of conversations with audiences, scholars, and relatives of the Todd family frame McCreary’s intimate and devoted research to offer a new and unique portrait of the most tragic First Lady. 

Though Mary has been portrayed in books and film, McCreary’s volume book contains information not found elsewhere—details others have overlooked and those that would not fit well into a narrative history—such as lists of Mary’s beaus, servants, and the Todd family slaves; appendixes that present mini-biographies of families and friends; and a uniquely thorough timeline. Mary Lincoln Demystified covers areas in which McCreary’s audiences have expressed the most interest: Mary’s sanity, her family relationships, her views on slavery and African Americans, her personality and habits, and what happened to her possessions and children after she died.

While sympathetic to the woman she portrayed for two decades, McCreary examines both sides of controversial issues and presents the facts with her trademark style and flair. More than a good read, McCreary’s Q&A factbook, based as it is on decades of extensive research in primary and secondary sources, will be the definitive resource for answers about Mary for years to come.

Autoren/Hrsg.

McCreary, Donna D

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Feminismus, Feministische Theorie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Introduction 
- 1. Mary Grows Up in the Bluegrass: The Lexington Years, 1818 to 1835
- 2. Wife, Mother, and Friend: The Springfield Years, 1835 to February 1861
- 3.  Assailed from All Sides: The White House Years, 1860 to 1865
- 4. The Darkest Night of All: Lincoln’s Assassination, April 15, 1865
- 5. Widowhood and Exile, 1865 to 1882
- 6. The Issue of Sanity
- 7. Family Relationships
- 8. Mary, The Issue of Slavery, and African Americans
- 9. Personality and Personal Habits
- 10. Beyond the Grave 
- Appendix I – Her Family
- Appendix II – Her Friends
- Appendix III – Timeline
- Notes
- Acknowledgments 
- Bibliography
- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Donna D. McCreary, a writer, lecturer, and performer, is the author of Lincoln’s Table: Victorian Recipes from Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois to the White House and Fashionable First Lady: The Victorian Wardrobe of Mary Lincoln. McCreary portrayed Mary Lincoln from 1992 to 2012 and now lectures at Lincoln sites, museums, and libraries throughout the Midwest. She is a cofounder of Mary Lincoln’s Coterie.