10 Best Novels About the Civil War

[RJNorton]

(06-04-2014 11:05 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  I read Gore Vidal's Lincoln when it first came out 30 years ago. I enjoyed it and didn't understand why it was so controversial.

Hi Toia. Regarding the controversy - hopefully I am not confusing books here, but as I recall, some Lincoln historians didn't like Gore Vidal stating that Abraham Lincoln had contracted syphilis and then adding that he communicated the disease to Mary thus accounting for Mary's mental instability. As far as I know Herndon's word is the only "evidence" Lincoln ever had syphilis, and in other threads we have discussed the reliability/lack of reliability of Herndon as a source of facts.