The Shadows Rise

[RJNorton]

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...

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.