The First Lady and the Rebel

[L Verge]

Our own Susan Higginbotham, author of a number of historical novels (including the popular one Hanging Mary) will have a new one coming out in October. I have now read over 200 pages of a pre-publication edition and love it!

The First Lady and the Rebel is based on Mrs. Lincoln and her Southern sympathizing sister, Emily Todd Helm, and it is hard to put down as it covers basic history, personalities of the two, political and social issues that they dealt with as well as the war and the heartbreak.

Sorry, gents, it is definitely a made-for-the-fair-sex read; but I can offer a Christmas gift suggestion. If you have a wife, mother, or teenage daughter with the slightest interest in the Lincoln story - without having to wade through all that sloppy political jargon - you need to consider this as a present.

As a sidebar: Last Sunday, we had a mother in a wheelchair accompanied by two daughters and a granddaughter visit Surratt House. I was working that day and struck up a conversation. They were from Ohio and had spent the past week visiting Civil War battlefields and sites in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

Their last stop before heading home that evening (a six-hour drive) was the Surratt House. They specifically had come for a visit because the mother had read Susan's Hanging Mary and was intrigued.

When they found out that Susan was a volunteer guide at the museum, they were astounded. When I told them that she was scheduled to work this coming Sunday, they were quite upset that they had missed her. BTW folks, Susan and her family (and two feisty dogs) drive about two hours each way once a month so that she can volunteer at Surratt House. That's dedication!