Mary's Reputation

[Deb@Library]

Thanks, Donna. I did read the author's background and qualifications; certainly, she is writing from a rehab perspective and I do believe it's important to consider "motive" in an author's work, but she also holds a Ph.D in educational research. I just thought she raised some interesting points, especially about the wide-spread use of opiates by the medical community at the time. Since Mary Lincoln seemed to have had such ups and downs in her temperament, I just wondered if it was possible that opiates could have played a factor in her behavior and whether or not anyone had run across corraborating information. There's so much bunk floating around about the Lincolns and Mary especially, that is can be confusing to separate the fact from fiction. That's why I checked into the site. Thanks so much.