Lincoln's Ladies

by Winkler, H. Donald

• ISBN13: 9781581824254
• ISBN10: 1581824254
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-01
• Publisher: Cumberland House

Summary

The tumultuous experiences Abraham Lincoln had with women have long been chronicled. Lincoln's Ladies attempts to answer the questions of how he was affected by the women in his life and how he affected them. Abandoned through death by his mother, his sister, and his sweetheart, Ann Rutledge, Lincoln found it difficult to relate to women and developed an emotional barrier that often antagonized them. Abstract and cool, he feared intimacy and marriage and, following Ann Rutledge's untimely death, was incapable of loving anyone the way he had loved her, probably the only woman with whom he shared a deep and wonderful love. Lincoln fumbled his way through other courtships and was turned down at least twice. He then stumbled into a strange relationship with Mary Todd--one culminated by marriage through her trickery and his sense of honor." Lincoln's marriage to her was his greatest tragedy, "a burning, scorching hell as terrible as death and as gloomy as the grave," said William Herndon, Lincoln's partner and biographer. According to H. Donald Winkler, Lincoln's emotions and motivations were shaped from a mixture of crippling and energizing experiences associated with women, experiences that profoundly affected his personal and professional lives. Lincoln's Ladies explores the impact of more than thirty women on his life. Not overlooked, however, are the positive impacts of women on Lincoln and he on them, especially his stepmother, who probably was the first person to treat him with respect and glimpse his potential. "

Table of Contents

Foreword by Frank J. Williams	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction	xvii
1. "All That I Am or Ever Hope to Be I Owe to Her"	3	(10)
2. "She Was Doubtless the First Person That Ever Treated Him Like a Human Being"	13	(12)
3. "Teach Me, O Lord, to Think Well of Myself	25	(16)
4. "There's More in Abe's Head than Wit and Fun"	41	(16)
5. "He Has Dumped Her-Ho, Ho, Ho"	57	(10)
6. "My Comfort by Day, and My Song in the Night"	67	(10)
7. "Annie's Whole Soul Seemed Wrapped Up in Lincoln"	77	(12)
8. "I Want in All Cases to Do Right"	89	(28)
9. "Lincoln's Wife Was a Hellion"	117	(28)
10. "Mrs. Lincoln Is Involved in a Corrupt Traffic"	145	(22)
11. "Her Letter...Had Been Carefully Treasured by Him"	167	(8)
12. "The Best Abused Man of Our Nation"	175	(22)
13. "That Woman Is Pretending to Be Me!"	197	(16)
Epilogue: "Beloved of Abraham Lincoln"	213	(4)
Appendix: Evidence of the Lincoln-Rutledge Romance and Engagement	217	(10)
Notes	227	(26)
Selected Bibliography	253	(12)
Index	265