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Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
07-06-2014, 07:16 AM
Post: #601
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
(07-05-2014 06:12 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I think this question could have two answers. Mrs. Garfield established a library in her husband's memory after his death, but I think Truman's was the first established under the 1955 act that sanctioned Presidential Libraries. I believe that Truman liked the idea that FDR had generated by creating his library with the holdings at Hyde Park and this led to the official act of establishment.

Laurie:
You are correct. The answer is complicated. FDR is also another choice- and so is Hayes. I was thinking Garfield when I posted the question. No simple answer on this one.

Bill Nash
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07-12-2014, 08:24 PM
Post: #602
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
Quote: "In her domestic troubles I have always sympathized with Mrs. Lincoln. The world does not know what she bore, or how ill- adapted she was to bear it. Her fearless, witty, and austere nature shrank instinctively from association with the calm, imperturbable, and simple ways of her thoughtful and absent- minded husband."

Who wrote this?

Bill Nash
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07-13-2014, 04:43 AM (This post was last modified: 07-13-2014 05:06 AM by Eva Elisabeth.)
Post: #603
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
Isaac Arnold? I think it was (someone) in the course of the insanity trial.
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07-13-2014, 05:03 AM
Post: #604
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
Dr. Anson G. Henry?
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07-13-2014, 05:22 AM
Post: #605
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
Eva and Roger: good guesses but incorrect. By way of a hint I will say that it was written by a male and he is probably someone you might not expect.

Bill Nash
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07-13-2014, 05:42 AM
Post: #606
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
Herndon?
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07-13-2014, 07:02 AM
Post: #607
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
Eva: exactly right- William Herndon. The quote is from his book Life of Lincoln.

Bill Nash
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07-13-2014, 07:44 AM
Post: #608
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
(Is it worth some more good wishes for the soccer game tonight?)
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07-13-2014, 07:47 AM
Post: #609
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
Yes! So far it has worked!

Bill Nash
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07-13-2014, 07:58 AM
Post: #610
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
Thanks Bill!
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07-13-2014, 03:12 PM
Post: #611
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
And so, William Herndon seemed to have some empathy towards Mrs. Lincoln. I note that he refers to Lincoln as "absent-minded." It makes me pause for a moment. I have not viewed him that way? Wonder what evidence Herndon might have had for that?

Bill Nash
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07-13-2014, 06:12 PM
Post: #612
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
Eva: promised and delivered!

Bill Nash
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07-13-2014, 07:52 PM (This post was last modified: 07-15-2014 08:27 AM by Eva Elisabeth.)
Post: #613
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
First class delivery, Bill, fantastic, THANK YOU!!! I LOVE the prize!!!
   
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07-15-2014, 11:20 AM
Post: #614
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
(07-13-2014 03:12 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  I note that he refers to Lincoln as "absent-minded." It makes me pause for a moment. I have not viewed him that way? Wonder what evidence Herndon might have had for that?
Bill, I was so "absent-minded" the other day that I overread your question.

One "story" (most likely - I think - this is what Herndon refered to) was told by Margaret Ryan to Jesse Weik on Oct. 27, 1886.

Mrs. Ryan once "saw Mrs L. strike L. on head with piece of wood while reading paper in South Parlor — cut his nose".

In at least two books (can't check in where right now) I read that Mary asked her husband to tend the fire because she was busy with the kids, he didn't react being absorbed in reading, so she hit him as the fire went out. I also once read the story with Lincoln (literally quoted) excusing himself for being that absent-minded and chatting and laughing with Mary afterwards. I don't know what or if at all the authors had other sources than the M. Ryan interview above or embellished the rest.

Very representative for A. L.'s "absent-mindedness" is IMO the following "circuit incident" told by Henry C. Whitney:
“One morning, I was awakened early – before daylight – by my companion sitting up in bed, his figure dimly visible by the ghostly firelight, and talking the wildest and most incoherent nonsense all to himself. A stranger to Lincoln would have supposed he had suddenly gone insane. Of course I knew Lincoln and his idiosyncracies, and felt no alarm, so I listened and laughed. After he had gone on in this way for, say, five minutes, while I was awake, and I know not how long before I was awake, he sprang out of bed, hurriedly washed, and jumped into his clothes, puts some wood on the fire, and then sat in front of it, moodily, dejectedly, in a most sombre and gloomy spell, till the breakfast bell rang, when he started, as if from sleep, and went with us to breakfast. Neither Davis nor I spoke to him; we knew this trait; it was not remarkable for Lincoln.”

No idea whether Herndon knew of this account, it's from Allen Thorndike Rice's "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln : by distinguished men of his time" (1886). I like this book, you can download it here:
https://archive.org/details/reminiscenceso2251rice
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07-15-2014, 02:32 PM
Post: #615
RE: Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels
(07-13-2014 03:12 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  And so, William Herndon seemed to have some empathy towards Mrs. Lincoln. I note that he refers to Lincoln as "absent-minded." It makes me pause for a moment. I have not viewed him that way? Wonder what evidence Herndon might have had for that?

Thanks Bill!

I don't know what made WH describe MTL's nature as "austere". From all descriptions she sounded turbulent, emotional, impulsive, extravagant and unstable.

The very opposite of an austere nature or personality. It confirms my belief that Hendon did not know Mary's true self very well at all.
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