(02-25-2017 02:15 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  I think I am in the minority on the forum when I question whether Tad ever got to the point of actually writing letters to people. I say that despite what Mary said (such as Tad writing to Sally Orne). Is there other specific evidence of Tad really writing letters to people?

(02-27-2017 11:41 PM)kerry Wrote:  There does not seem to be any actual evidence.

(04-01-2017 11:32 AM)Rob Wick Wrote:  My first reaction to this was to agree with Roger, and I still do. However, there is one way that I can see this as having some (and I emphasize, some) credibility. When, in 1868, Mary went to Scotland, she visited with James Smith. She wrote a letter to Smith on August 26, 1868. In a section marked "Private" Mary writes "if you receive any replies to your letters, written to the Senators--please forward them to me--I am glad, Miss Allen, is with you." (Mary Todd Lincoln, Her Life and Letters, pg. 514). Obviously, Mary talked to Smith about her perceived financial issues and what the chances were of her receiving a pension. Smith was going to write to various senators to lobby on Mary's behalf.

What if Reid, or Smith, suggested to Mary that she write a memoir of her life with Lincoln, which inarguably would have been an immediate bestseller and would have, under the right circumstances, given Mary a lifetime income. At that point, Mary might have been amenable to the idea, talking with Reid about the possibility of doing so, but not committing to anything. She conceivably could have even broached the subject with Robert, who likely would have done all in his power to put a stop to such talk.

As the years passed, Reid embellished the story to the point where he had been hired to help Mary with the book, but it never went anywhere. The comment that I've read in various sources is "In 1868 he was employed by Mrs. Mary Lincoln, widow of the President, to assist in the preparation of the Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln. While employed on this work he was appointed by President Grant as United States Consul at Dundee, and held the office at that port until his removal to Oregon in 1874." Most likely, he or Smith broached the subject with Mary, she either gave it some consideration or rejected it outright, and if she gave it consideration she either later rejected it, or Robert put a stop to it. My guess is that if any of my scenario happened, she rejected it outright.

Best
Rob

(04-01-2017 11:32 AM)Rob Wick Wrote:  My first reaction to this was to agree with Roger, and I still do. However, there is one way that I can see this as having some (and I emphasize, some) credibility. When, in 1868, Mary went to Scotland, she visited with James Smith. She wrote a letter to Smith on August 26, 1868. In a section marked "Private" Mary writes "if you receive any replies to your letters, written to the Senators--please forward them to me--I am glad, Miss Allen, is with you." (Mary Todd Lincoln, Her Life and Letters, pg. 514). Obviously, Mary talked to Smith about her perceived financial issues and what the chances were of her receiving a pension. Smith was going to write to various senators to lobby on Mary's behalf.

What if Reid, or Smith, suggested to Mary that she write a memoir of her life with Lincoln, which inarguably would have been an immediate bestseller and would have, under the right circumstances, given Mary a lifetime income. At that point, Mary might have been amenable to the idea, talking with Reid about the possibility of doing so, but not committing to anything. She conceivably could have even broached the subject with Robert, who likely would have done all in his power to put a stop to such talk.

As the years passed, Reid embellished the story to the point where he had been hired to help Mary with the book, but it never went anywhere. The comment that I've read in various sources is "In 1868 he was employed by Mrs. Mary Lincoln, widow of the President, to assist in the preparation of the Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln. While employed on this work he was appointed by President Grant as United States Consul at Dundee, and held the office at that port until his removal to Oregon in 1874." Most likely, he or Smith broached the subject with Mary, she either gave it some consideration or rejected it outright, and if she gave it consideration she either later rejected it, or Robert put a stop to it. My guess is that if any of my scenario happened, she rejected it outright.

Best
Rob

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.

(04-02-2017 10:03 AM)Rob Wick Wrote:  

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

(04-02-2017 08:31 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  Kerry,

The link required a log in, but I was able to download a couple of articles, one of which mentions the Louisville article. Here are the links.

https://ibb.co/gY1RwF

https://ibb.co/j94FOv

Notice that all of these are Democratically-controlled papers and all have an obvious anti-Radical bias in them. All are located in the South. In the second link the word "Book" is put into quotation marks and the author claims the book is nearly ready for the press. That should send up a couple of red flags. First, why is "Book" in quotation marks? Second, if the book was nearly ready for press, that means that Mary, or whomever the ghostwriter would have been, was working on it at the time that Mary was in deep mourning for her husband. Another red flag is the unnamed "Illinois editor." Strange that the editor happens to be from Illinois, the same state that Lincoln was from and was laid to rest in and where Mary was living. Why not Indiana or Kentucky, since Lincoln had lived in both? Because for the attack on Radical policy, which this article clearly is, to be effective, having the source as an Illinois editor, the state most closely connected to the assassinated president, gives it more "punch." Plus, it is no coincidence that the Illinois editor mentions John A. Logan, considered by many Democrats in Illinois to be a traitor to the party.

The second article is equally telling, especially in its attempt to refute the notion that Mary Lincoln was suffering mentally, which she obviously was. The editor, not wanting to betray his own party loyalties, puts the term "late lamented" in quotes, so as to not make it appear to come from his own pen, rather from somewhere else he is merely quoting. Again, the gist of the article is how this so-called "book" will cause the Radicals to howl. Also, it's interesting that they call her "The Government's widow."

Interestingly, the first article, which appeared in the Cumberland (Md.) Alleganian, was published on February 28, 1868 while the second article appeared in the Petersburg (Va.) Index on April 16, 1868, long before Mary left for Europe. So, I don't think this attempt to tie Mary into anti-Radical politics has anything to do with Reid.

Now, one could ask is it possible that Mary still had the idea in her mind of writing a book, and some anti-Radical Illinois Democrat caught wind of it and decided to use the president's grieving widow as a symbol of how even the great martyr Lincoln's wife saw through Radical perfidy? I'm not convinced. First, the timing is off. Mary wouldn't have been seriously working on a book (meaning the actual writing and not just thinking about it) at this point. Even if she hired a ghostwriter, it still doesn't make sense. She was still too wrapped up in her grief, and she was becoming more and more mentally unstable. Second, Robert, seeing the state his mother was in, would never have let such a scheme move forward even in fits and starts.

I personally don't believe a book was ever seriously in consideration. By that, I mean the research, the writing or the shopping around of a manuscript or the possibility of a manuscript. That certainly isn't to say that publishers might not have wanted to approach Mary or Robert, but in my opinion, the reason Mary's biographers failed to mention it is because it never happened.

Best
Rob