Who is this person?

[Rob Wick]

Mike,

Catherine Eddy Beveridge was born in Chicago in 1881. She came from a well-to-do family. One of the clues I had planned on using was that in 1905 she had been presented before Czar Nicholas II. She met and married Albert J. Beveridge in 1907. This was Beveridge's second marriage as his first wife died in 1900. Catherine's mother and aunt were strongly opposed to the marriage, but she ignored their doubts.

I think Catherine's main role in her husband's work came after he died in 1927. It was she who selected Worthington C. Ford to finish the Lincoln biography. She worked with Houghton Mifflin to make sure the book received reviews in the most noteworthy outlets. She also selected Claude Bowers to be her husband's biographer, and then meticulously oversaw its completion. Later in the 1930s she created the Albert J. Beveridge Prize that the American Historical Association gives out. She lived to be almost 90, dying in 1970. While much of Beveridge's work remained in the public eye on its own merit, Catherine did all she could to keep interest in it alive.

One note. In her Wikipedia page, as well as Albert's, someone has written that when Albert died she wanted his papers to go to Carl Sandburg. Yet neither article mentions a source. I cannot emphasize strongly enough that this did not happen. Beveridge and Sandburg disliked each other. Had Catherine given the papers to Sandburg, that would have been a slap at her husband. It would have been like Catherine giving the papers to Ida Tarbell, whom Beveridge hated with a passion.

Best
Rob