Mary Lincoln - Biography of A Marriage

[Gene C]

Very Good Book
by Ruth Painter Randall, written in 1953 with 399 pages. Beginning with her days in Springfield and goes to the end of her days, a refreshing look at her life, personality, and the challenges she faced in life.

She does an excellent rebuttal of Herndon's comments about Mary, and acknowledges Mary's shortcomings. The last five chapters deal with the assassination and Mary's life following, very tragic and very moving. After Tad's death her motherly attention become focused on her sister's grandson, Lewis.

"She talked much of the past and of her lost sons. She told Lewis what had not been known before, that Lincoln was holding her hand when the fatal shot was fired. When death took Lewis's two little sisters, she wrote tenderly and understandingly of his sorrow. 'We are never prepared for these things...God gives us our beloved ones, we make them our idols, they are removed from us & we have patiently to wait the time when He reunites us to them'. Then followed perhaps the most poignant sentence in all her expressions of her own grief: 'And the waiting is so long!"

Mrs. Randall writes as though she is Mary's friend, and is a talented writer. This book has become one of my favorites. The only shortcomings it has are, no index and no footnotes. She does reference and quotes many letters Mary had written that were privately owned, that people brought to Mrs Randall to use in her book.

I'll give it four and a half stars only because there is no index, bibliography, or footnotes. If you have the slightest interest of learning more about Mary Lincoln, I highly recommend this book to you.

http://www.amazon.com/mary-lincoln-ruth-...549&sr=1-5