The Shadows Rise

[RJNorton]

(11-10-2015 03:22 AM)maharba Wrote:  I have not seen the 2009 book by John Evanglist Walsh, The Shadows Rise, maybe it clears up all the mysteries?

I can only speak for myself. For me this book cleared away any lingering doubts I may have had on the Lincoln-Rutledge romance. I came away from this book convinced the romance was very real. However, for those folks who have doubted the romance, I do not think this book changed their minds. The debate goes on...

(11-10-2015 03:22 AM)maharba Wrote:  But, in that strained process, and with her sad early death, Rutledge put in motion into the mind of Lincoln a very powerful sorrow which nearly verged into his own suicide?

I may be in the minority, I think, but I feel the degree and length of Lincoln's melancholy may have been overrated. I have read where his depression lasted into the next year, and that he had a nervous breakdown. I have not seen any evidence that this really occurred in 1836. Certainly Lincoln experienced periods of depression (or "the hypo" as he put it), but IMO some authors over-emphasize this.