Things Lincoln never said

[RJNorton]

I find this the strangest meeting. Even the date is in dispute. Although we discussed December 2, 1862, in this thread, other sources give the date as November 25, 1862. This is the date given by Stowe biographer Phillip McFarland in Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe. I checked Lincoln Day By Day and again there is no mention of Lincoln meeting with Stowe on November 25, 1862. There has been mention of William Seward introducing Stowe to Lincoln. I checked Walter Stahr's Seward: Lincoln's Indispensable Man and cannot find any mention of Seward ever meeting Stowe. There has been mention of Mary Lincoln inviting Stowe to the White House. I checked my Mary Lincoln biographies, and there is no mention of this. Noah Brooks, who arrived in the fall of 1862, does not mention Stowe. Neither do Hay or Nicolay.

Wasn't Harriet Beecher Stowe a "household name" because of Uncle Tom's Cabin? I just think it is amazing that there seems to be no independent corroboration of this apparent (my word, not the historians') visit other than the Stowe family itself.