Lincoln and Ann Rutledge

[Gene C]

Hi Gene, I loved Ruth Painter Randall's book but I didn't mention it for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to single out only men who I feel have written a balanced and fair description of the marriage, and second Ruth Painter Randall is a little too slanted in the pro-Mary direction.

I specifically wanted to mention men who have not consistently written negatively about MTL but have been fair to her, in contrast to ones like Michael Burlingame.

In defense of Ruth, we read so much negative about Mary, when we read something that isn't that way, it sometimes comes across as to slanted in her favor. Mrs. Randall does point out some of Mary's shortcomings , makes no excuse for them, but does explain why they happened. She writes as though she is a close friend of Mary's, it was refreshing for a change. She doesn't harp on her faults the way other writers do, but I agree, she is a bit slanted in favor of Mary.

Now back to Ann & Abraham. No doubt in my mind they had a close relationship, he did stay overnight several times at the Rutledge home, they knew each other well. He's lost his mother, he's lost his only sister, he's away from home (and his dog). Ann's death would have been extremely hard to get over. A promising, romantic relationship is hard to get over. My two favorite books about this time period are Lincoln's New Salem by Benjamin Thomas and The Shadows Rise by John Walsh. (anyone read Citizen of New Salem by Paul Horgan?)