Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[ScholarInTraining]

(12-15-2017 09:41 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(12-15-2017 09:00 AM)L Verge Wrote:  Are there any definitive descriptions of Robert's personality as a child? Was he mischievous and outgoing like Willie and Tad, or more withdrawn or solemn in nature? I have always thought of him as the proper Todd as a grown-up, but even his mother seems to have been an outgoing persona at first.

Ruth Painter Randall writes in Lincoln's Sons:

"He (Robert) was a difficult boy passing through a difficult age. Good evidence can be given of the special bond between Tad and his father and of that between Willie and his mother, but evidence of responsiveness and affection on Robert's part at this time seems lacking. Some element in his nature (perhaps shyness was a part of it) apparently kept him from letting himself go in a wholehearted expression of such emotions. He lacked the quality of enthusiasm. The magnetism of his father, the vivacious friendliness of his mother had not been handed down to him. In the collected record he appears, as a boy, to have had an uncomfortable aloofness from the rest of the family, with perhaps a suggestion of antagonism."

You know, I actually read that! I loved it, but it wasn't 100% in spots. The thing about some biographers is that, depending on the research, some "facts" are spot on in some places and wildly inaccurate in others. Some of them write based on their opinion of who or what they're writing about and pass it off as fact.

But I think Painter-Randall's This contrasts with Emerson and Goff's analysis of what "Bob" was like personality-wise: a sociable, kind, fun-loving and occasionally prankish guy who could be quite sensitive and shy at times.

I think his father wrote that when he was around three he was full of "a great deal" of mischief. And there's a recorded instance of him running around with brother Eddy wreaking havoc on a train. So definitely mischievous! But maybe he knew how to "settle down" more than his younger brothers did.

I'm sure he had many "Wille-and-Tad"-ish moments that went unrecorded simply because his father wasn't as popular in the media publicity.
And given that he didn't really like being in the spotlight....he probably wouldn't have wanted all his life stories retold anyway.