W. A. Evans: "Mrs. Abraham Lincoln"

[Anita]

Just finished "Mrs. Abraham Lincoln" by W.A Evans. I thought Evans did a wonderful job capturing the essence of Mary the person. He methodically looked at members of Mary's family tree from both behavioral characteristics and physical traits of ancestors. He carefully researched parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins documenting through the factual record: business acumen, drive, status in the community, political arena, personality traits, illnesses, marriage choices and more. He documented and footnoted his sources. He then looked at Mary's life by time segments starting with birth. In each segment the major events of her life are listed and then a Chapter follows linking these events to the developing personality. At the age where personality is fully formed Evans links personality to behavior both active and reactive. Evans doesn't try to justify nor condemn Mary's behavior. He provides a scientific way to understand Mary as a product of inherited traits and environmental influences including triggers that can change both behavior and body chemistry. Whats amazing is that he wrote the book in 1932. Today through advances in genetic studies we know that all traits depend on how heredity and environment interact to produce their effects.

Available on line for free.
https://archive.org/details/mrsabrahamlincol006929mbp