Influential Women of the Civil War Period

[LincolnToddFan]

Audrey, I want to welcome you to the Forum..and I also want to say that your paper sounds absolutely intriguing. I can't wait to read it...what a brilliant idea!

I think MTL biographers Ruth Painter Randall and Jean Baker had some effect on Lincoln's image/legacy and writing about him in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, before Randall's sympathetic portrayal of Mary and the Lincoln marriage in 1953 the prevailing view was that he was mostly a henpecked marital martyr(the Herndon influence). Professor Jean Baker's and also Catherine Clinton's documented studies of the Lincoln marriage reveal the story in considerably more complexity and depth.

He was a patient, loyal and devoted husband with an amazing amount of emotional intelligence...but he was no saint. In fact his emotional and physical distance from his family while he was making his reputation locally and nationally could have played some role in his wife's volatile, possessive attitude when he WAS around.