Review of "An Inconvenient Widow: The Torment, Trial, and Triumph of Mary Todd Lincoln" by Lois Romano

 

Lois Romano is a national journalist who was an editor, political writer, and columnist for The Washington Post and Politico. In this book, Romano amends the maligned reputation of Mary Todd Lincoln, who was vilified during her life, and even more fiercely criticized afterwards.

Romano writes, "My purpose is not to excuse or whitewash Mary's behavior. Her actions were, at many times, egregious. She could be self-centered, dishonest, and tone deaf. But much of the criticism was one-sided and heartless, rarely taking note of her acts of kindness and generosity....By re-examining factual accounts and primary source documents through the lens of both modern medical science and contemporary standards for women, I have tried to piece together a more complete and compelling portrait...of a woman of uncommon tenacity in the face of extraordinary adversity, personal shortcomings, and torment...That she persevered in the face of overwhelming grief, poor physical and mental health, and public scorn was a testament to her mettle."


Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Todd was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1818. Her parents, Robert Todd and Eliza Parker Todd, belonged to prominent families that boasted military heroes, landowners, bankers, merchants, governors, doctors, ministers, and U.S. senators. Mary was 6-years-old when her mother died, and sixteen months later her father married Betsy Humphreys who "inherited six young children to raise....and gave birth to nine more children, eight of whom survived."

This was difficult for Mary, and Romano believes it contributed to Mary's future emotional problems. In any case, Mary had a fine education with a curriculum that combined "rigorous academics and French language immersion with tutoring in the refinements associated with social class, including acting and dance." Mary Todd was one of the few first ladies in American history to have a more formal education than the sitting president.

Growing up in Lexington, Mary was confronted with the nation's most controversial issue: slavery. Mary's family owned slaves, and Lexington was home to one of the South's most notorious slave markets "where Negroes [were] flogged unmercifully." Mary's changing views on slavery were shaped by her upbringing, her exposure to brutal treatment of slaves, and her neighbor (and idol) Henry Clay's opposition to slavery.




Slave auction on Cheapside, Lexington


Henry Clay

When Mary was twenty-one she left Lexington and moved to Springfield, Illinois to live with her married sister Elizabeth. Having an interest in politics, Mary got to know Abraham Lincoln, who "was thirty, a rising star in the Whig Party and Illinois politics, and an orator and raconteur of some skill."


Abraham Lincoln

Romano describes Mary and Lincoln's tumultuous romance, which ended in marriage in 1842, when Mary was twenty-four and Lincoln was thirty-three. The Lincoln's lived in two temporary residences before they settled into their house on Eighth and Jackson Streets in 1844.


Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln


The Lincolns' home on Eighth and Jackson Streets in Springfield, Illinois

In later years, Mary and Abe's on-and-off romance was used to denigrate Mary, with "no shortage of males claiming that Lincoln, did not marry for love...but because he felt honor bound." This story was largely spread by Lincoln's one-time law partner William Herndon, a scoundrel who made a career of tearing Mary down. Afterwards, writers and biographers repeated Herndon's tale so many times, "it became embedded in history."


William Herndon

Romano cites evidence of Lincoln's deep affection for Mary, including many tender letters; Lincoln calming Mary during her emotional episodes; and Lincoln hurrying to wake Mary after 1860's presidential election, saying, "Mary, Mary, we are elected."

Romano writes a good deal about Lincoln's political career, and emphasizes Mary's active interest and assistance. Mary resented anyone she thought failed to support Lincoln or blocked his advancement, and her grudges were fierce and long-lasting. As an example, William Seward was Lincoln's rival for the Republican presidential nomination in 1860, and after the election, Mary STRONGLY opposed Lincoln making Seward Secretary of State. Lincoln did anyway, and the two men eventually became strong allies. Contrariwise, Mary didn't forgive and forget, and her snubs sometimes embarrassed the administration and made enemies for Mary herself. Sadly, Mary cold-shouldering William Herndon may have been a factor in his long campaign to tear her down.


William Seward


Republican campaign rally at the Lincoln home in August, 1860

The issue of slavery was at the center of Lincoln's presidency, and Romano describes Lincoln's progress from trying to prevent slavery's expansion; to using emancipation as a weapon of war; to the abolition of slavery. Mary was on board with Lincoln every step of the way. Nevertheless, Lincoln's enemies attacked him through Mary, saying she supported the Confederacy, and citing the fact that Mary's family owned slaves, and many of her male relatives joined the Confederate Army. In fact, it's well documented that Mary often visited Union military hospitals, bringing flowers, fruits, and food, and speaking with the soldiers.

Mary Lincoln often visited Union military hospitals like this one

Lamentably, Mary's reputation was harmed by the fact she combined support for the Union with shopping. When Mary visited Philadelphia and New York for pro-Union events, she took the opportunity to shop at luxury stores to spruce up the White House. Mary purchased a grand piano, draperies, Parisian wallpaper, a rosewood bed frame, luxurious carpets, silver, chandeliers. fine French china, and more. Romano writes, "As the government was struggling to pay for the war, Mary was being savaged by Lincoln's detractors for her lavish shopping."


The East Room after Mary redecorated it

Romano believes Mary was (what's now called) a compulsive shopper, evidenced by the fact Mary had "eye-popping debts from her impetuous shopping sprees." The author writes, [Mary] had amassed a collection of fine lace dresses, luxurious furs, 300 pairs of gloves, and jewels, all on credit...Mary's spending had continued, unabated and unchecked, for five years [while Lincoln was president]." After the assassination, "The ride was over. Now all the merchants and banks from which she borrowed were demanding payment."


Mary Todd Lincoln dressed in her finery


An exhibition of Mary Lincoln's wardrobe in 1867

Of course Mary was devastated by Lincoln's assassination in 1865 (which Romano describes), and the situation was made worse by Mary's destitution. It took years for Lincoln's estate to be settled, and meanwhile, Mary had very little money. Romano documents this in detail, and describes Mary obsessively soliciting money from influential and wealthy people. Other aspects of Mary's misbehavior, both during her marriage and widowhood, are documented by Romano, who acknowledges it's all fuel for Mary's critics. Still, Romano excoriates biographers for being HUGELY biased against Mary, and being unsympathetic to Mary's physical and mental illnesses, and the tragedies in her life.

Mary lost three of her and Abraham's four sons: Eddie died in 1850, at the age of three, probably from tuberculosis; Willie died in 1862, at the age of eleven, probably from typhoid; and Tad died in 1871, at the age of eighteen, from a respiratory infection. The only Lincoln child who survived to adulthood was the oldest son, Robert.


The Lincolns' sons: Robert (top left); Willie (top right); and Tad (bottom)

Mary's deep mourning for her children and husband drove her to consult spiritualists, which led to 31-year-old Robert organizing a trial to have his mother committed to an insane asylum in 1875. With help, Mary soon got out, and was almost completely estranged from Robert after that.


Mary Todd Lincoln in mourning clothes after Lincoln's assassination

Mary surely deserved sympathy for all this trauma, but her detractors were largely unable to provide it.

Mary spent large portions of her later life in Europe, both to prevent Robert from trying to institutionalize her again, and because the continent was more economical for a single woman. During her final years, Mary lived with her sister Elizabeth in Springfield, Illinois, and she died in 1882, at age 63.


The funeral of Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary's legacy was largely defined by the misogynistic men who wrote her biographies. Many were influenced by William Herndon's infamous libel, which was accepted as truth. Others believed women should remain in their place in a man's world, and Mary was ostentatious and flamboyant. I think Romano does an admirable job correcting the record.

This is an important book that I'd recommend to all readers interested in American history.

Thanks to Netgalley, Lois Romano, and Simon & Schuster for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 4.5 stars 

Review of "Ironwood: A Catalina Novel of Suspense" by Michael Connelly

 

 

In this second book in the 'Catalina' series, Sergeant Stilwell investigates crimes on and off Catalina Island

*****

Detective Sergeant Stilwell was a homicide investigator for the LAPD before a departmental dust-up got him transferred to the Sheriff's Department on the Catalina Island substation - the penalty for troublesome Los Angeles cops.




Transfer to Catalina is supposed to be a punishment, but Stilwell, who's now in charge of the Catalina Island Substation, is VERY happy there. He likes the environment and he's living with his girlfriend, Natasha (Tash) Dano, the island's assistant harbormaster.



'Ironwood' opens in the middle of the night, when Stilwell and two deputy sheriffs, Isla Ramirez and Alton Quigley, are staked out at Catalina's mountaintop airstrip. Quigley had received a tip from one of his mainland confidential informers, who said a plane was coming in tonight, to make a drug drop. While Stillwell and the deputies watch from a hidden SVU, a small plane lands and an ATV pulls out of the brush and follows it down the runway.



When a duffel bag is dropped from the plane and picked up by the ATV driver, Stilwell and his deputies move in. After that, things go terribly wrong. Following a dramatic chase, the ATV driver escapes, the plane takes off, Quigley is shot dead, and Ramirez is badly injured.



Stilwell's boss Captain Corum and a homicide team arrive from Los Angeles, to examine the crime scene and interview Stilwell. Stilwell is cleared of blame, but Corum confines Stilwell to the substation while LAPD detectives investigate. Corum also suggests Stilwell clean up the boxes of lost and found items cluttering up the substation, to make it look more professional.



Stilwell is like the Harry Bosch of Catalina Island (if you know who that is).



Stilwell is NOT about to sit on his thumbs and let Los Angeles detectives investigate a crime on HIS turf, where HIS deputies were victims. So Stilwell identifies the ATV driver, finds important clues, and makes startling discoveries. That's all I'll say about that.

Meanwhile, Stilwell also starts going through the lost and found items at the substation, throwing away unclaimed junk. When Stilwell comes across a backpack found on a bench two months ago, he looks inside for ID.



A Medeco key with a locksmith’s stamp leads to Angela Metier, a woman who disappeared while hiking on Catalina four years ago. This is puzzling: why would the backpack have been brought in just two months prior?



The backpack also contains an old Ford car key that didn't belong to Angela, who drove a Mini Cooper. Thinking something is off here, Stilwell calls Detective Renée Ballard, who's in charge of the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit.



Renée connects the Ford car key to Candace Neary, who was murdered by a serial killer that targets female hikers.



Stilwell and Ballard conclude the serial killer also murdered Angela Metier, and purposely left the backback to taunt the police. So Stilwell and Ballard team up to pursue the perpetrator.

The novel has two fun cameos: Stilwell hears Harry Bosch's advice to 'always go back to the murder book'; and Stilwell sees LAPD Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch (Harry's daughter) when she volunteers for Renée's cold case squad.



Between working on big murder cases, Stilwell does routine police work on Catalina Island, related to graffiti and vandalized grape vines.



Stilwell also spends time with his girlfriend Tash, and they often enjoy dinner and movies together.



The book ends with a cliff-hangar, and I look forward to learning what happens next.

Note: Stilwell never tells anyone his given name, and always says 'Call me Stil.' But if you pay close attention, you'll learn his moniker.

I enjoyed the book but have a small quibble. Stilwell serendipitously discovers VERY important clues time after time, by chance. This seems unrealistic. That said, Michael Connelly's books never disappoint, and I'd highly recommend this novel to mystery fans.

Rating: 3.5 stars 

Review of "The Light and the Dark: A Strangers and Brothers Novel" by C.P. Snow

I first read C.P. Snow's 'Strangers and Brothers' series some time ago, and it became a favorite. The novels focus on an English barrister/civil servant, Lewis Elliot, who rises from poverty to a position of influence in the early-to-mid 1900s. Elliot is present in the entire eleven-book series, but he's not always the central character.

The Light and the Dark is part of the series, but it works fine as a standalone. The story is about Roy Calvert, a young Cambridge scholar who studies Orientalism and linguistics. Roy is a brilliant researcher, but his moods alternate between profound depression and exuberant elation, probably due to (what's now called) bipolar disorder.



The novel covers the period from the prewar mid-1930s until 1940, when England has entered WWII.

*****

As the story opens, narrator Lewis Eliot is a 30-year-old law don at Cambridge, and has rooms there as well as a home in London with his wife Sheila. Roy Calvert resides on the same staircase as Lewis, and the two men have become close friends.



As members of the college, Roy Calvert and Lewis Eliot socialize with the Master, John Royce, and his wife Lady Muriel. This leads to acquaintance with the Royces' daughter Joan as well as Lady Muriel's aristocratic brother and sister-in-law, Lord and Lady Boscastle, all of whom are important to the story.



Calvert and Eliot are amused by the snobbery of the aristocrats, who are obsessed with family, breeding, social standing, and knowing the 'right' people.



Lewis feels the sting when the Master's wife, Lady Muriel, consistently addresses Roy by his given name and Lewis as 'Mr. Eliot.' Lady Muriel favors Roy's company because he's more socially acceptable: Roy's family is wealthy, he's at ease among the upper classes, he's witty and polished, and he's a sought after dinner guest. Conversely, Lewis pulled himself up from poverty and is self-conscious and guarded.



Nevertheless, over time the other aristocratic woman, Lady Boscastle, comes to like Eliot, and to engage him in private tête-à-têtes. Describing Lady Boscastle, Lewis writes, "She was fragile, thin with an invalid's thinness, and she helped herself along with a stick; in the other hand she carried a lorgnette...she had aged through illness...but it was easy to believe that she had once been noted for her beauty."



Lewis writes, "I had twice visited Lady Boscastle by myself. She invited me so that she could indulge in two pleasures - tell stories of love affairs and nag me into being successful as quickly as might be." Lady Boscastle trusts Lewis, and tells him about her lovers, marriage, and youthful affairs, which made her husband jealous and unhappy.



Dinners at the Master's table are important because the guests discuss Cambridge affairs as well as other topics. They exchange gossip about college appointments, elections, academic reputations, rivalries, indiscretions, and so on. There are also discussions of politics, Germany, Hitler, Nazis, the prospect of war, what stand Britain should take, etc.



Roy Calvert becomes a 'dinner topic' when he's nominated for a college fellowship. Roy is an exceptional linguist whose specialty is Manichaean Sogdian, an ancient Eastern Iranian language. Roy deciphers Sogdian manuscripts, reconstructs the language's grammar and vocabulary, translates texts, and publishes papers about the language and the Manichaean religion.





In part, Calvert uses intense scholarship to mitigate his periods of despondency. Eliot describes Roy's sitting-room as follows: "There were all kinds of desks in a glazed and shining white - an upright one, at which he could work standing...several for sitting at...and one very low which he could use by lying on cushions on the floor....Most days he worked in this room for seven or eight hours without a break. The whole room was full of gadgets for work, most of which he had designed. There were holders for his manuscripts, lights to inspect them by, a small X-ray apparatus, card indexes which stood up and could be used with one hand."



Calvert's suave appearance, pleasant demeanor, and superb research make him a favorite with the Master and Tutor Arthur Brown (Roy's mentor). Thus the Master and Brown push for Calvert to get a college fellowship, citing Roy's well-received Sogdian publications. A fellow is accorded academic status, a stipend, permission to keep rooms at the college, and freedom to do research.



New fellows must be voted in (like academic tenure). The voters are current fellows of the college, usually senior academic members and clergy. The election strongly resembles a political election, and Roy's candidacy takes up a good portion of the book. Tutor Arthur Brown is like a campaign manager: he lobbies, counts heads, sounds people out at college dinners, tries to persuade doubtful fellows, and arranges for two respected linguists to attest to Roy's much-hallowed work. Through all this, Eliot (who's a 'yes vote' of course) agonizes over how it's all affecting Roy's moods.

The biggest stumbling block to Roy being elected are staid conservative fellows who disapprove of Roy's lifestyle. Roy is a womanizer and has a lively nightlife, drinking and partying. In part, this behavior stems from Roy's neurodivergence, which isn't understood at the time. The book is almost a suspense novel around the issue 'Will Calvert be elected or not?'



There's more going on in Roy's life as well:

➤ At separate times, two women - Rosalind Wykes and Joan Royce - fall in love with Roy and scheme to marry him. Roy can't bear to hurt a woman, which makes this especially difficult for him.



➤ Calvert yearns for religion, to no avail. Calvert wants there to be a God and wants to be able to believe, but he just can't make himself. This is a source of tremendous anguish for Roy, and contributes to his depression.



➤ Roy is fluent in German, spends a lot of time in Germany, and supports Hitler and the Nazis. Roy abhors Hitler's brutality and treatment of Jews, but he believes a German led-Europe will be beneficial in the long run. This puts Roy at odds with some Cambridge fellows, as well as many of his friends and acquaintances.



The most humorous scene in the story occurs during Calvert's visit to Berlin in 1938. Roy is a jokester and mimic, and likes to tease people and make them smile. On the other hand, Roy has little patience for social snobbery and enjoys puncturing the pretensions of those who take status too seriously. Thus when the University of Berlin wants to give Roy the title 'visiting professor' - to acknowledge his expertise in Orientalism and linguistics - Roy agrees to speak at a seminar.

Lewis Eliot is in Berlin at the time, and attends Roy's presentation. This is Eliot's description: "Roy dressed with exquisite care...He put on his most fashionable suit, a silk shirt, a pair of suede shoes. As he sat on the Rector's right in the oriental lecture room at the university, he looked as though he had strayed in by mistake. Most of the attendees were homely, academic, middle-aged [men], dressed in sensible reach-me-downs." When it was Roy's turn to speak, he began in English, saying 'the subject is intricate and I have to use my own language, which of course you can understand' (most couldn't).

Eliot writes, "Roy lectured for an hour and twenty minutes. His face was imperturbably solemn throughout - except that twice he made a grotesque donnish pun, and gave a shy smile. At that sign, the whole room rocked with laughter. When he frowned, they shook their heads. When he sounded triumphant, they nodded in unison. Even those who could understand his English must have been little the wiser. For he was analyzing some esoteric problems about words that he had just discovered; they were in a dialect of Sogdian which he was the only man in the world to have unraveled. To add a final touch of fantasy, he quoted long passages of Sogdian, so much of the lecture seemed to be taking place in Sogdian itself. He would recite sentence after sentence in the language, completely incomprehensible to anyone but himself."



Eliot goes on, "I was sitting with a handkerchief pressed to my mouth. It was the most elaborate, the most ludicrous, the most recherché, of all his tricks."



Through the entire story, Calvert has debilitating periods of depression, made worse by the fact Roy knows they'll never stop, that he'll be plagued for his whole life. As Calvert's best friend, Eliot is privy to Roy's low moods and tries to help him, but knowledge at the time is inadequate to the purpose.

Inevitably, Britain enters WII in 1939. Lewis becomes a government minister (this story is covered in another book) and Roy becomes a flyboy. The aristocrats know they have a duty to their country, and act accordingly.



I'd recommend the novel to readers interested in historical fiction and WWII.

 Rating: 4 stars