Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[kerry]

(12-21-2017 06:08 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Why does the name James Redpath sound familiar? Also, I was not aware that any research had been done on Mrs. Keckly’s son – even a book entitled Nobody’s Son. http://sablearm.blogspot.com/2012/12/pvt...icted.html

---

(12-21-2017 04:29 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  I do not know about a diary, but I have one source that says she dictated her memoirs for the book while she was in New York laboring to sell Mary Lincoln's old clothes (1867). I know Robert Lincoln tried to suppress publication of the book. I do not know how successful or unsuccessful he was, and I do not know how many copies of her book actually sold. I do know the book ended the friendship between Mary Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckly.

Interesting side note referencing Robert Lincoln in the piece on Mrs. Keckly's son that I posted above:

(Note: Keckley was vilified for the intimate details she divulged and the private letters of Mary Lincoln that were included as an appendix to the book. Robert Todd Lincoln, in one of many ugly moments that marked his long life, blocked publication of the book and published his own parody, disdainfully entitled Behind the Seams; by a ***** Woman who Took Work in from Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Davis and Signed with an "X," the Mark of "Betsey Kickley (*****) denoting its supposed author's illiteracy.")

That is quite an accusation! (and I know you are just quoting the source and not making it yourself) I doubt Robert was behind it -- it's the work of someone who likes to write stupid, offensive stuff about what's in the news, not a crafted hit piece. One time I for some reason decided to skim it and there were cracks in there about Mary, so it's not like it was just offensive to Keckley.

The authorship was debated a lot in the early 1900s, and some seemingly credible accounts indicate several white men (more than the two claimed by Keckley, but not Swisshelm, as some have suggested) met with Keckley regularly to work on the book. Redpath was active in journalism and politics - he was like ambassador to Haiti or something. Hamilton Busbey was the other guy suggested, and that goes along with Keckley's later interviews, naming the publication he worked for. There has got to be correspondence somewhere about this book -- clearly people talked about it and supposedly got it pulled. There should be more of a record. I believe publishing house archives have a lot of useful information that has not been explored. There is a letter by someone who mentioned helping Nicolay get letters from a "colored woman," which may have been Keckley, but I imagine they were destroyed. I'm just convinced there was a lot more to this whole story.