Madness of Mary Lincoln

[kerry]

(11-16-2017 09:36 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Did you read this?
https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Todd-Lincoln...0880640731
My copy is far away, I cannot check her letters after Batavia, but I think not everyone though her "mad".
Especially her grand-nephew Lewis didn't.

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I, too, think Tad's death was just too much (her husband's had been already), and if anything Batavia brought her back to reason because getting out needed this (Batavia worked like cold water in the face. Despite I think it wasn't good for anything - well, getting to know her son's mindset).

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Didn't her sister Elizabeth, Robert's aunt, have one mentality ill daughter? Was she institutionalized? No. IMO Robert just wanted to get rid of a problem the most convenient way for him.

Yes, I have that book and have read it through. It was recently made available at archive.org to be "borrowed" if you want to access it, along with a ton of other Lincoln books. With it being only Mary's side of the correspondence, Lewis doesn't say anything, but they clearly had a good relationship. "Cold water to the face" is a good way of putting it. Elizabeth's daughter's husband was given a job in another country to hide her, supposedly. It's amazing to me that they kept it as quiet as they did, given how much is spoken about the Lincolns. It seems like Elizabeth was opposed to any family member being institutionalized because of the embarrassment, but I do think she thought Mary should be free. It's clear a lot of people thought she was eccentric but not in need of institutionalization, and that others lacked the imagination to see any distinction between the two, especially with women. Mary was able to appreciate people who were different and accept that they were so without dismissing them, as she does in her letters about several people, particularly to her daughter-in-law. Then you have the letters that indicate her doctor told her she needed quiet and couldn't see Myra Bradwell or Jane Swisshelm. She clearly connected well with people who had an independent streak.