Courting Mr. Lincoln by Louis Bayard

[Susan Higginbotham]

I just finished this historical novel about the courtship of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd, complicated by Lincoln's friendship with Joshua Speed.

In promoting his book, the author has provoked a discussion of Lincoln's sexuality, and has mentioned C.A. Tripp's controversial book on the subject, but the novel handles the question much more subtly, leaving the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. The book that seems to have most heavily influenced the author, in fact, is Charles Strozier's "Your Friend Forever, A. Lincoln," about the friendship between Lincoln and Speed.

The quality of the writing is excellent, as are the characterizations of the three main characters (told in the third person, the book alternates between the viewpoints of Mary and Joshua). It was also entertaining to see what the author made of bit players in the story, such as Eliza Francis and Matilda Edwards. There are vivid descriptions of 1830's and 1840's Springfield and of Speed's Kentucky plantation.

This was a moving and at times quite humorous book that I would heartily recommend.