Mary Lincoln for the Ages by Jason Emerson

Mary Lincoln for the Ages Reviews

• 
  Bill

  This is really more of a reference book than a narrative, so it seems like it shouldn’t “count” as an addition to the list of books I’ve read. Nevertheless, it does provide some very good insight into Mary Lincoln, in reviewing just about everything that’s ever been written about her. If you're a fan of reading endnotes and the little asides and anecdotes that are often tucked away there, well, this is basically an entire book of endnotes. 
  
  First, though, an introductory essay explains why Mary Lincoln is such a divisive and polarizing historical figure, and why so many biographers seem to get her all wrong. Early Abraham Lincoln biographer William Herndon portrayed her in the worst possible light, and early Mary Lincoln biographer Ruth Painter Randall countered with an overly sympathetic portrayal. And it’s been bad/good, black/white, either/or ever since - every writer seems to want to take sides instead of approaching their subject objectively, portraying Mary as either a misunderstood woman or a total hellion, with little room for nuance. 
  
  Part of the problem, Emerson argues, is that so much of what we think we know about Mary can be traced back to a mere handful of books, many of them with questionable citations. Their stories are merely "repeated by modern writers who copied the story from previous writers." Emerson determines that a grand total of seven publications are used as the main sources for most who have ever written about Mary Lincoln. 
  
  So he set out to identify all the rest of the sources that are out there, judge their reliability, and provide "a road map to a better understanding" of her, for the benefit of future would-be biographers.
  
  The bulk of the book consists of a list of 453 primary and secondary sources on Mary Lincoln, together with Emerson’s synopses of them, as he offers his analyses on which can be trusted, which are worthless, which are underused and which should be more closely consulted by anyone planning to write about Mary Lincoln.
  
  These analyses are concise, astute, very readable and often refreshingly blunt. He traces well-known stories about Mary back to their original sources - such as diary entries or newspaper stories - so writers don’t have to rely on other writers who cited them and may have skewed their interpretations. 
  
  And his thumbnail reviews of Mary Lincoln’s major biographers cut right to the chase. Randall’s
  Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage is "impressively researched" but "more advocacy than objective historical examination." Jean Baker’s
  Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography has "many and serious flaws", as "a one-sided feminist - often accusatory and exculpatory - diatribe in which Mary is a saint." 
  
  Other reviews of books that I’ve read are generally in line with what I thought after reading them. Daniel Mark Epstein's
  The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage is described as an "unreliable book… based on predetermined conclusions and poor research." Catherine Clinton’s
  Mrs. Lincoln: A Life is "an unoriginal rehash of previous writers' materials and conclusions" (and to think she blurbed his last book and thanked him in her own book - I imagine they’re not buds anymore?) 
  
  And "few, if any, scholars are as meticulous and exhaustive in their research as Michael Burlingame - and few have such a disdain for Mary Lincoln," Emerson writes. I, personally, found Burlingame’s
  An American Marriage: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd unpleasant to read but undeniably well-researched. "Readers may not like what Burlingame has to say," Emerson acknowledges, but what Burlingame has uncovered is unimpeachable and "cannot be dismissed as simple bias or misogyny."
  
  As an index of sources, this book is factual, opinionated, but scrupulously unbiased. It’s a good read if you want a skeleton of a Mary Lincoln biography without any adornments that make you question whether what you’re reading can really be trusted. Emerson has produced a valuable resource here that any future Mary Lincoln biographer would be wise to consult, lest they write yet another one-sided, erroneous story that does nothing to further our understanding of a complicated woman.