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The Madness of Mary Lincolnby Jason Emerson
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In 2005, historian Jason Emerson discovered a steamer trunk formerly owned by Robert Todd Lincoln's lawyer and stowed in an attic for forty years. The trunk contained a rare find: twenty-five letters pertaining to Mary Todd Lincoln's life and insanity case, letters assumed long destroyed by the Lincoln family. Mary wrote twenty of the letters herself, more than half from the insane asylum to which her son Robert had her committed, and many in the months and years after. The Madness of Mary Lincoln is the first examination of Mary Lincolns mental illness based on the lost letters, and the first new interpretation of the insanity case in twenty years. This compelling story of the purported insanity of one of Americas most tragic first ladies provides new and previously unpublished materials, including the psychiatric diagnosis of Marys mental illness and her lost will. Emerson charts Mary Lincolns mental illness throughout her life and describes how a predisposition to psychiatric illness and a life of mental and emotional trauma led to her commitment to the asylum. The first to state unequivocally that Mary Lincoln suffered from bipolar disorder, Emerson offers a psychiatric perspective on the insanity case based on consultations with psychiatrist experts. This book reveals Abraham Lincolns understanding of his wifes mental illness and the degree to which he helped keep her stable. It also traces Marys life after her husbands assassination, including her severe depression and physical ailments, the harsh public criticism she endured, the Old Clothes Scandal, and the death of her son Tad. The Madness of Mary Lincoln is the story not only of Mary, but also of Robert. It details how he dealt with his mothers increasing irrationality and why it embarrassed his Victorian sensibilities; it explains the reasons he had his mother committed, his response to her suicide attempt, and her plot to murder him. It also shows why and how he ultimately agreed to her release from the asylum eight months early, and what their relationship was like until Marys death. This historical page-turner provides readers for the first time with the lost letters that historians had been in search of for eighty years. Review:Abraham Lincoln dealt with quite a few problems as 16th president of the United States. Alas, one of them was his troubled wife, Mary, whose tragic later years are the subject of a fine new book by Virginia historian Jason Emerson, The Madness of Mary Lincoln (Southern Illinois University, $29.95, 258 pages, illus.). Born into a well-to-do Kentucky family, Mary was, in Mr. Emersons judgment, "intelligent, witty, vivacious and cultured, but she also was spoiled, petulant, selfish, nervous, and excitable." As first lady, her extravagant refurnishing of the While House in time of war invited considerable criticism. Then came tragedy. Her 12-year-old son, Willie, died of typhoid fever in 1862, and three years later her husband died at the hand of John Wilkes Booth. The remaining 17 years of Marys life were filled with anguish as she attempted to cope with the frowning world from which her husband had long protected her.(John M. and Priscilla S. Taylor, Washington Times, Oct 29 2007 ) Review:American historians dream of finding a cache of Lincoln letters the way the rest of us dream of picking six winning numbers for Powerball Lotto. In summer 2005, independent scholar Jason Emerson hit the jackpot-twenty forgotten, never-before-published letters written by Mary Lincoln. And these are not letters from some random period in Marys life-these letters date from "the insanity episode," as Emerson calls it, the months before, during, and after her 1875 confinement in the Bellevue Place Sanitarium in Batavia, Illinois. In addition to the Mary Lincoln letters, Emerson found five other previously unknown letters written to the presidents widow during this unhappy chapter in her life. Taken together, these documents offer scholars what they have never had before: fresh insights into Marys mental and physical condition before she was sent to Bellevue; the actions she took to win her release from the sanitarium; the less-than-flattering rol(Thomas J. Craughwell, American Spectator, Nov 19 2007 ) Review:Those of us who have at the same time anguished over what has through the years been called Mary Lincolns madness and Abrahams discomfort with having to live with it will be pleased with this volume, the third on the subject through the years. It also explains the behavior of the only remaining son, Robert Todd, and exonerates him from cruelly committing his mother to an insane sanitarium in Chicago. Mary, admittedly, was high-strung, driven by pride and conceit, all resulting from what Emerson diagnoses as "depression, of mania, of a relapsing-remitting course, and even of a regular cycle. These are consistent with Bipolar Disorder" (188). There is evidence of "serious psychiatric illness in Mary Lincolns family," and she was, "at times, clearly psychotic" (189). These new conclusions come by Emerson through examination of a steamer trunk formerly owned by Robert Todd Lincolns lawyer and stowe(Ray B. Browne, Journal of American Culture, Mar 1 2008 ) Review:At long last the definitive work on Mrs. Abraham Lincolns oft discussed mental state has been published based on recently discovered 25 long lost letters by her and associates from the asylum where she had to be incarcerated and from elsewhere. Actually the letters were with the descendants of the Lincoln family attorney. With the help of officials at Hildene, the Robert Todd Lincoln Vermont estate of the Presidents son, independent historian Jason Emerson, formerly of the National Park Service, was able to uncover this treasure trove. An indefatigable researcher, Emerson not only writes well but judiciously in showing that Mary Todd Lincoln almost assuredly suffered from bipolar disorder, which used to be called manic depression. Moreover, through the generosity of Abraham Lincolns biographer Dr. Michael Burlingame, whose own multi-volume work on the (Steven Lee Carson, Lincoln Herald, Jun 4 2008 ) Review:In The Madness of Mary Lincoln, Jason Emerson has created a detailed and compelling argument to convince the reader that the widow of Abraham Lincoln was mentally ill for years after 1864 and that her son, Robert, behaved in the noblest traditions of the post-Civil War United States. The sanity of Mary Lincoln and the conduct of her sole surviving son have been discussed and debated with varying degrees of seriousness since Lincolns assassination. In various newspapers both lurid and serious and in historical texts and essays the argument has been parsed, pursued, and dissected. What distinguishes this effort from other recent serious works is that the author had access to a treasure of personal correspondence that was presumed either lost or destroyed. The story of how Emerson was given access to these documents by the family of Robert Lincolns attorney is(Mark H. Fleisher, MD, JAMA, Jul 14 2008 ) Review:A Dutiful Son and a Disturbed Mother: New Perspectives on Robert and Mary Todd Lincoln Upon Mary Todd Lincolns death in July 1882, the editor of the Springfield Monitor (Illinois) began the former First Ladys obituary with a simple but powerful statement: "Mary Lincoln was no ordinary woman." She was "princely in her nature" and worthy of the position she held in the White House, but the editor was quick to note the perceived effect of Abraham Lincolns assassination on her eccentricities. Since that fateful day, "her history has been well known to this country."[1] While a general history of her activities may have been known to her contemporaries, the scarcity of materials related to her later life has vexed historians for years, especially in regard to what former National Park Service ranger Jason Emerson refers to as her "Institutionalization(Matthew C. Sherman, H-Net Reviews, Sep 22 2008 ) Review:Its the stuff Hollywood movies are made of: The already mentally unbalanced wife of a president goes mad after his assassination. Her son, fearful that she has become not only incompetent but a danger to herself, has her publicly tried for insanity and committed to an asylum. There, through the connivance of a pair of mysteriously motivated conspirators, she engineers her release and flees to Europe. Finally, she dies in obscurity, nearly forgotten by an embarrassed American public, while her son lives the rest of his life labeled as a son who had his mother committed in order to get his hands on her fortune. If only it were Hollywood, but the story of Mary Todd Lincoln and Robert Todd Lincoln is all of this and more. Or at least it is more now that author Jason Emerson has shed astonishing new light on a chapter of American history long thought closed. By dint of extraordinary scholarship and sheer luck, Emerson discovered that the entir(Ron Miller, Front Porch Fredericksburg, Sep 5 2007 ) Review:The Tormented First LadyThe story behind The Madness of Mary Lincoln is, perhaps, as intriguing as the historical work itself. In March 2005, Jason Emerson was working on his upcoming biography on Robert Lincoln, when the discovery of two letters penned by Robert's attorney, Frederic N. Towers, led him on a search for the legal papers relating to the insanity trial of Mary Todd Lincoln. These papers were known to have existed but had never been found, and many a frustrated Lincoln historian had come to the conclusion that Robert Lincoln-who had "previously admitted attempting to destroy all of his mother's correspondence from the insanity period"-had disposed of them himself (2). Jason Emerson remained undeterred by this probability. What turned up months later in the Towers family home was an old steamer trunk containing the business, legal, and family papers of Robert Lincoln, including twenty-five letters relating t(Giselle Roberts, Civil War Book Review, Nov 10 2008 ) Review:“Jason Emerson's The Madness of Mary Lincoln will become a classic of American history. It has everythinga compelling story; a fascinating cast of characters; the thrilling discovery of long-lost documents; shrewd analysis of the people, the period, and the sources; and it's a pleasure to read. Here is a model of the historian's art.”American Spectator
“Jason Emerson has written the definitive work on Mary Todd Lincolns mental health in general and her insanity problems in particular. Written with verve and complete understanding of the subject, The Madness of Mary Lincoln is a masterpiece.”Wayne C. Temple, author of Abraham Lincoln: From Skeptic to Prophet About the AuthorJason Emerson is an independent historian who lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He has worked as a U.S. National Park Service historical interpreter at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Gettysburg National Military Park, and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and also as a professional journalist and freelance writer. His articles have appeared in American Heritage, American History, and Civil War Times magazines, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Lincoln Herald, Lincoln Forum Bulletin and online at the History News Network (hnn.us). He currently is preparing a biography of Robert T. Lincoln, to be published by Southern Illinois University Press in 2009. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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