Mary's friends

[Rob Wick]

Quote:Thanks for your input - there are a lot of articles that surfaced in 1868 about her writing memoirs, which he could have planted for attention, but they didn't mention him as the author. This was right after Behind the Scenes, so I was thinking maybe there was confusion or Mary briefly considered a response book. But in 1868 the papers claimed to have seen a chapter of it, and reported later she was working on it in Germany - obviously could be made up. But Reid's story matches in that she did a lot of work in Germany and mailed it to him after the Dundee visit. And there are letters floating around where she does discuss a book with someone in America around that time. It probably got shut down, but it'd be something if it still existed. Then there's this: https://www.worldcat.org/title/henry-dem...ef_results

So it seems pretty likely she did work on a book at some point - I think there is a letter to Deming where she says not at this time, she's reconsidered. But maybe in Germany when she was relatively let alone she reconsidered, especially after the Behind the Scenes.

Just wondering if you could post links to those newspaper articles or at least share the citations, as well as the letters you mention? In all I've read about Mary Lincoln, this is the first I've heard that she was considering writing a book. Neither Jean Baker nor Carl Sandburg/Paul Angle mention it. Plus, I'm curious as to why she would write a response to Behind the Scenes when she never (to my knowledge) considered writing, or having written on her behalf, a refutation of Herndon's lecture on Ann Rutledge, other than the letter James Smith wrote and had published in the Chicago Tribune.

Thanks.

Best
Rob