Extra Credit Questions

[Anita]

I asked my 19 yr. old twin grandchildren to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" this Christmas and then we discussed it as a family. So this is my choice.
I'm holding off on looking it up but I'd love to know more about this author.

Anita, there is some discussion regarding Philip Van Doren Stern here.

Thank you Roger. Very informative and a good jumping off point to learn more about Stern's Civil War era books.

Here's an article from Smithsonian "What ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Teaches Us About American History"
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsoni...180979223/

[RJNorton]

No googling please.

Only one non-fiction author to my knowledge has written that Abraham Lincoln carried a gun on his person to Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865.

What is the author's name?

[Rob Wick]

Roger,

I know the answer because I wrote the author after hearing about this. To let it go on for a while I won't answer.

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

Thanks, Rob.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I know I KNEW but forgot. It must be someone "older". I know this guess is likely wrong - Benjamin Thomas? (Was it a Jewish author?)

[RJNorton]

Nope.

Hint #1: The correct answer is more closely associated with Mary Lincoln rather than Abraham Lincoln.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Is the answer in Reck's "Lincoln's last 24 hrs"?

[Anita]

Like Eva, I knew I'd read this but couldn't remember where. With the help of the last hint I found the answer on this forum!
Should I post it or let other have the fun of the search?

[RJNorton]

Is the answer in Reck's "Lincoln's last 24 hrs"?

It is not in that book.

[RJNorton]

Like Eva, I knew I'd read this but couldn't remember where. With the help of the last hint I found the answer on this forum!
Should I post it or let other have the fun of the search?

All I said was no googling. This forum is fair game!

[Anita]

Thanks. This was posted by RJNorton 7/29/12 on the thread Did Lincoln Own Any Weapons

Catherine Clinton, in her bio of Mary Lincoln, states quite clearly that Lincoln was carrying a pistol at Ford's. On p. 314 Clinton writes, "Possession of a handgun during this period was far more common, raising fewer eyebrows than it would today. Abraham Lincoln himself was carrying a pistol on the night he died." In a footnote Louise Taper is given as the source.

Obviously, if true, being armed still would not have helped Lincoln given the circumstances of the assassination.

[RJNorton]

Kudos, Anita! Yes, it is Catherine Clinton. I have never seen this stated in any other book. Nevertheless, she seems quite certain of it in the way she worded her statement.

[Susan Higginbotham]

Apparently the pistol story comes from Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, who owned the pistol until it was stolen from him. He based the story on a family tradition. John Rhodehamel discusses it in America's Original Sin: White Supremacy, John Wilkes Booth, and the Lincoln Assassination. (I don't own the book, saw it on Google Books.)

[AussieMick]

Who said this of Lincoln ...
"He has been raising a respectable pair of dark brown whiskers—which, it is said improve his looks, but no appendage can ever render him remarkable for beauty."

google search if you wish

[RJNorton]

James Garfield.

https://blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2022/1...y-lincoln/