The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage | Daniel Mark Epstein

The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage | Daniel Mark Epstein | Very Intimate and Personal History of the Lincoln Maraige

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The Lincolns: Port...

	The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage Daniel Mark Epstein Ballantine Books, 2008 - 576 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The first full-length portrait of the marriage of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln in more than fifty years, The Lincolns is a fascinating new work of American history by Daniel Mark Epstein, an award-winning biographer and poet known for his passionate understanding of the Civil War period.

Although the private lives of political couples have in our era become front-page news, the true story of this extraordinary and tragic first family has never been fully told. The Lincolns eclipses earlier accounts with riveting new information that makes husband and wife, president and first lady, come alive in all their proud accomplishments and earthy humanity.

Epstein gives a fresh close-up view of the couple?s life in Springfield, Illinois (of their twenty-two years of marriage, all but six were spent there). We witness the troubled courtship of an aristocratic and bewitching Southern belle and a struggling young lawyer who concealed his great ambition with self-deprecating humor; the excitement and confusion of the newlyweds as they begin their marriage in a small room above a tavern, and the early signs of Mary?s instability and Lincoln?s moodiness; their joyful creation of a home on the edge of town as Lincoln builds his law practice and makes his first forays into politics. We discover their consuming ambition as Lincoln achieves celebrity status during his famed debates with Stephen A. Douglas, which lead to Lincoln?s election to the presidency.

The Lincolns? ascent to the White House brought both dazzling power and the slow, secret unraveling of the couple?s unique bond. The Lincolns dramatizes certain well-known events with stunning new immediacy: Mary?s shopping sprees, her defrauding of the public treasury to increase her budget, and her jealousy, which made enemies for her and problems for the president. Yet she was also a brilliant hostess who transformed the shabby White House into a social center crucial to the Union?s success. After the death of their little boy, not a year after Lincoln took office, Mary turned for solace to spirit mediums, but her grief drove her to the edge of madness. In the end, there was little left of the Lincolns? relationship save their enduring devotion to each other and to their surviving children.

Written with enormous sweep and striking imagery, The Lincolns is an unforgettable epic set at the center of a crucial American administration. It is also a heartbreaking story of how time and adversity can change people, and of how power corrupts not only morals but affections. Daniel Mark Epstein?s The Lincolns makes two immortal American figures seem as real and human as the rest of us.

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The Lincolns: Biographer Epstein does a splendid job in presenting tumultuous and tragic marriage of Abraham and Mary Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was a poor Kentuckian who rose to national stature becoming elected our 16th President of the United States in 1861. Most lists of the best presidents place him at the top. His wife Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) was the daughter of the socially prominent Todd family of Lexington, Ky. Their marriage was difficult, tragic and worthy of the skills of a great biographer.Epstein succeeds in his portrayal of their troubled life together in nineteenth century frontier America and in the halls of power in Washington DC during the dark days of the Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln married Mary in 1842. They were living in Springfield, Illinois where the state capital had recently been relocated from Vadelia.
Abraham had raised himself by the bootstraps., He began life as a poor lad growing up with very little schooling on the Kentucky and Indiana frontier. After migrating to Illinois he tried his hands at many jobs before become a circuit riding lawyer. Mary was a wealthy woman from Lexington who spoke French, was well educated and grew up a few miles from the home of Kentucky's famous Whig Senator Henry Clay. Mutual friends brought the two together drawn by passion, Whig politics and wit.
After a stormy courtship which led to a time of separation the two were wed in 1842. Lincoln was tall while Mary was short. Mary had a vicious temper, tart tongue and was moody. Lincoln and she became the parents of four sons. Robert the eldest was a Harvard graduate and became president of a railroad company. Eddie died in 1850 while Willie died in 1852 as a result of cholera while living in the White House. Tad died in 1871. Mary and Abraham were permissive parents; Mary never got over the tragic loss of her sons and two of her brothers fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War. The two were often apart for weeks as Lincoln tried cases across Illinois and served a term as a congressmen in Washington during the Polk administration. =Mary and the boys tried life in Washington but grew homesick for Kentucky and Illinois leaving the lonely Lincoln to fulfill his term as a one term congressman who opposed the Mexican War.
Lincoln won the White House as a Republican in the election of 1860 facing the problems of civil war. Northerners falsely accused Mary of being a Southern spy! Mary was much scorned by elite Washington society as being a crude Westerner. She spent lavishly on redecorating the White House earning a good deal of justifiable criticism from the public and her own frugal husband. Mary was jealous of other younger and more beautiful women in wartime Washington.
Abraham Lincoln was a melancholy man who kept his thoughts to himself. He was intellectually miles ahead of the moody Mary. The two kept relatively separate lives during the dark days of the Civil War. They did love one another and neither had extramarital affairs. President Lincoln knew how to handle Mary in her time of mental afflictions even though he sometimes suffered her wrath. She was known as a hellcat and many found it difficult to work with her. Others such as Senator Charles Sumner considered her a friend. Mary had a good heart often visiting wounded soldiers and helping friends. She was not an easy person to know or like.
Tragedy came to the couple when Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on April 15, 1865. Mary was devasted never really recovering her mental stability following the death of Abraham, her children and the tragedies of the Civil War.
Hundreds of books have been written about both Lincolns but this is the best popular and readable history of their marital life. Epstein has done his homework.Epstein makes his two complex subjects come alive for the reader. The book is over 500 pages of small print which is detailed but never dull. An excellent book by an excellent biographer. Highly recommended!

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Very Intimate and Personal History of the Lincoln Maraige

Well researched with excellent writing, Epstein catures the fascinating and complex relationship of Abe and Mary. Although much has been written on Abe, Epstein provides a full and human description of Mary who was a voluptuous, intelligent beauty in her youth that was well sought by many prominent beaus including Stephen Douglas. The courtship is fascinating by itself as the poor struggling lawyer appears no match for the well kept after Mary and his sudden break of their relationship is full of mystery as Abe becomes seriously ill and the author providess more than speculation as to the cause. The return to Mary in a secret courtship includes their intellectual sharing of poetry and reading, including guarded private moments that all lead to a sudden marraige followed by Robert's birth in quick time. Epstein details the life of Lincolns from their living in a small room in a rooming house while raising their small children, adding to personal stress, till they landed their own homw with Abe's better fortunes and assistance from the Todd family. The revelations of Mary's actions are quite fascinating as she was high strung, emotional and needed more attention than Abe could give that sometimes resulted in sudden and dramatic harsh treatment such as hot coffee to his face to a wrap across the nose with a piece of firewood. Honest Abe, from a variety of examined correspondence was not so political naive but could also play the political gameship well even in his runs for congress. The most fascinating part of the book is of course in the white house where Mary's desire for extravaant spending involveding finacial corruption, her interference with politics, her jealousy over her husband and her extended grief over the death of Willie creates serious strain between the couple. Abe's incredulous stress load only increases as he not only has the war and politics but his wife's often erratic behavior and personal vendettas that are other burdens he must carry as well as caring for young Tad. As Epstein discusses, Mary's head injury from a run away carraige may have caused brain trauma that may never have been resolved as demonstrated by severe outbursts most significantly just before Lincoln's death. And Lincoln's own behavior, dramatically limiting his personal security as noted to his walking into Richmond with a limited escort, his exposing himself at Fort Stephens in the face of Confederates and his toying with his cavalry escorts says something about his feelings of fate. There is no doubt that both loved each other very much but the Presidency, in time of war, certainly strained the relationship between the two as evidenced by Mary's mental health and Abe's physical. Just over 500 pages not counting notes and index and in heavy paper that make this hard back edition a collector's item. A very fluently written book that makes it hard to put down as the author is a great story teller, writer with the documentation to support his telling.

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Insightful and beautifully written

One might have thought there would be little more to say about Abraham Lincoln, certainly not enough to fill a 500-page book. But that would be incorrect. Epstein's Lincoln is often distracted, sometimes depressed, always under stress, yet caring and psychologically in tune with his troubled wife. Although there were unexplainable tantrums, jealousies, and shopping sprees that he couldn't tolerate, he still drew on a deep reservoir of love. Long before we understood mental illness as we do today, Abraham Lincoln knew that Mary was a basically good woman who was suffering from a serious disease.

Epstein writes like the poet that he is, and he never loses sight of his goal -- to portray the marriage of these two fascinating people. Events such as the Gettysburg Address are hardly mentioned. We know something about them already, so Epstein looks at what was really going on in the White House living quarters at that time.

Epstein uses his sources seamlessly, drawing on letters and memoirs of obscure people to illuminate the Lincolns' marriage. This would have been a five-star review, except that I found the first 50 pages somewhat difficult to follow. Epstein plunges into the political and social spheres of Springfield, Illinois, bringing in dozens of characters, in a way that I found hard to keep up with. This problem quickly resolves itself, however.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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