What are you reading now?

[LincolnToddFan]

Hi Eva E.,

Mary's lament about AL's death dream has appeared in too many books to mention here, but a few of them are Reck's "Lincoln's Last 24 Hours" and also the bios of MTL by Jean Baker and Ishbell Ross.

Wiki also mentions her comment-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassinati...am_Lincoln

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Toia. I skimmed "24 hours" and Jean Baker's book, but couldn't find it. I find it interesting and would love to know whether there is an original source given - thus who witnessed this (wiki doesn't - but calls Rathbone a consul which he never was...nevertheless I appreciate wiki). Could you maybe tell the page number in one of the two books? Many thanks.

[LincolnToddFan]

I've got literally hundreds of Lincoln books and first read the comment years ago. I'll have to look for it. Ruth Painter Randall's "Biography of a Marriage" put's the quote on page #344(hardcopy version) but of course RPR doesn't source any of her material. If memory serves it could have been Clara Harris or Mrs Dixon or Welles as the source...they were the three people who were constantly with her on the night of Apr14-15th.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks Toia. I don't have (read) Ruth Randall's book (would love to), her books are almost impossible to get here (shipping is the problem). Obviously there are many things in her books one doesn't find in most other books (just yesterday it turned out to be the same with a quote about A. L.'s alledged appetite for fricasseed chicken), so it's a pity she has no footnotes (like many old books).
However, if it happens you find or remember an original source one day it would be great if you could share.

[LincolnToddFan]

Thanks Toia. I don't have (read) Ruth Randall's book (would love to), her books are almost impossible to get here (shipping is the problem). Obviously there are many things in her books one doesn't find in most other books (just yesterday it turned out to be the same with a quote about A. L.'s alledged appetite for fricasseed chicken), so it's a pity she has no footnotes (like many old books).
However, if it happens you find or remember an original source one day it would be great if you could share.

I am going to PM you as soon as I find out! I am meticulously going through all my AL books. I think I also read the quote in Jim Bishop's "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" but I don't own that one.

I remember reading from more than one source about AL's fondness for chicken fricassee with biscuits but I can't remember where-very frustrating!

[Eva Elisabeth]

Toia, I found a (one) source. Guess who? Lamon.

P.120 (following the "dream scene") in his "Recollections of Abraham Lincoln" reads:
"On the night of the fatal 14th of April, 1865, when the President was assassinated, Mrs. Lincoln's first exclamation was, "His dream was prophetic."

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39630/396...m#Page_120

I think it's worth reading the entire context of the dream as told by Lamon('s daughter) respectively chapter VII as the entire context.

[LincolnToddFan]

Eva E....that is not surprising...so WHL is the source of the dream story, and uses MTL to back up his own story? Hmmm. Anyway the dream sounds so "Lincolnian" that I have never truly questioned it.

By the way I am reading two books right now. One is "Michael and Natasha: The Life and Love of Michael II, the Last of the Romanov Tsars" by Rosemary and Donald Campbell.

The second is Chris DeRose's new release "The President's War: Six Presidents and the Civil War That Divided Them". This book examines the issues of nullification and slavery as political hot potatoes passed from five American presidents, eventually landing in the lap of Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Speaking of Lincoln there is a fascinating incident on pg #191 in the summer of 1861. A military aide knocks on the door of the president's bedroom at 4am to give him news of the first Union battle victory at Rich Mountain, Virginia. Lincoln answered the door dressed only in a short red flannel shirt that he "struggled to hold down in front of him". He explained his appearance on the fact that his dressing gown was tangled around his sleeping wife's feet and rather than wake her, he put on this shirt instead.

Interesting. So.. not only was Abraham Lincoln still sleeping with his hated wife during the WH years he was apparently doing so...gasp!...in the nude!

The source for this anecdote is Col. Daniel Butterfield( Emmanuel Hertz's 1939 "Lincoln Talks: An Oral Biography". )

[RJNorton]

I remember reading from more than one source about AL's fondness for chicken fricassee with biscuits but I can't remember where-very frustrating!

Toia, I am not sure if this is where you read it, but I found this in A Treasury of White House Cooking by Francois Rysavy [G. P. Putnam: New York] 1972 (p. 250):

"Abraham Lincoln dined in a spartan fashion...He would rather nibble fruit. His wife Mary tried everything to make Abe eat but has frustrated time and time again to see the finest foods left all but untouched on his plate. One of the few entrees that would tempt Lincoln was Chicken Fricassee. He liked the chicken cut up in small pieces, fried with seasonings of nutmeg and mace and served with a gravy made of the chicken drippings. Mary Lincoln set a table at the White House, which included such food as Aspic of Tongue, Pate de Foie Gras, Turkey stuffed with Truffles, and all sorts of wild game, such as venison, pheasant, or canvasback duck. But all too often the President merely picked at his food."

I do not believe I have seen this description in any Lincoln book. I do not know the author's source.

Regarding Lincoln's eating habits, Sarah Bush Lincoln said, "Abe was a moderate Eater and I now have no remembrance of his Special dish: he Sat down & ate what was set before him, making no complaint: he seemed Careless about this. I cooked his meals for nearly 15 years."

Leonard Sweet, wrote, "I never in the 10 years of circuit life I knew him heard him complain of a hard bed or a bad meal of victuals."

John Hay wrote, "When he lived in the country at Soldiers Home, he would be up and dressed, eat his breakfast (which was extremely frugal an egg, a piece of toast Coffee &c) and ride into Washington, all before 8 o'clock....At noon the President took a little lunch — a biscuit, a glass of milk in winter, some fruit or grapes in summer. He dined at fr. 5 to 6. & we went off to our dinner also...He was very abstemious - ate less than any one I know. Drank nothing but water - not from principle, but because he did not like wine or spirits."

However, William H. Crook wrote, "Mr. Lincoln was a hearty eater. He never lost his taste of the things a growing farmer’s boy would like. He was particularly fond of bacon. Plentiful and wholesome food was one of the means by which he kept up his strength which was taxed almost beyond endurance in those days."

Go figure.

[LincolnToddFan]

Roger-

You are a marvel.. I am pretty sure I read about the chicken fricassee in one of MTL's biographies. I distinctly remember other details, such as the president exclaiming "Mary, this is like old times come back!" when he saw what was being served, and that Mary's eyes filled with tears. And of course, that AL cleaned his plate and went for 2nd and 3rd helpings.

Maybe it was the RPR bio. I'll check later. Thanks again!

[Gene C]

I agree, and he's also made me hungry.

[LincolnMan]

Getting back to the Garfield book by Candice Millard- which I haven't finished yet- I'm struck at how easy it still was to shoot a president. I would have thought that after Lincoln's assassination there would have been security to prevent yet another murder. Yet, Garfield had no security in the depot. I'm not familiar with the McKinley assassination- was there a lack of security for him as well?

[L Verge]

I agree, and he's also made me hungry.

It even had me googling and checking cookbooks to find out the difference between chicken fricassee, chicken and dumplings, and chicken a la king!

[HerbS]

Bill,Mckinley's Assassination-They thought they had enough security for him-Pan American Exposition Police-3 Secret Service Agents-12 Soliders. More than Lincoln.-Herb-- It wasn't being shot-It was the Dr's, inventors,poor heath and disease that killed him.

[Gene C]

If I recall, with Garfield's assassination, Alexander Bell tried to use a metal detector to locate the bullet. Garfield was laying on the new metal spring coiled Slumber 3000, and the metal coils interfered with the metal detector finding the bullet, although they didn't realize it at the time. They just thought the metal detector didn't work. We will never know if he might have survived if they could have taken the bullet out.

http://www.historybuff.com/library/refgarfield.html

Did I get most of it right, Rick?

[LincolnToddFan]

Bill,Mckinley's Assassination-They thought they had enough security for him-Pan American Exposition Police-3 Secret Service Agents-12 Soliders. More than Lincoln.-Herb-- It wasn't being shot-It was the Dr's, inventors,poor heath and disease that killed him.

That's right. They keep probing the wound with their dirty fingers. Sepsis is what finally did him in. And the autopsy revealed that they were nowhere even close to the track of the bullet!