The Lincolns' Marriage

Perhaps it's because they are writers and not broadcast journalists that some authors have about as much life in them at author presentations as Hummer sales.

Last Thursday night at Olssons at Penn Quarter, Daniel Mark Epstein, also a poet and dramatist, described his latest tome, The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage. He didn't paint Mary Todd Lincoln quite as negatively as most, although he twice mentioned without explanation her being "committed" to Bellevue Sanitarium in 1875 for three months, and since no one asked about it the "Q + A" session which followed, I guess everyone else there knew why.

Mrs. Lincoln "showed a lot of signs of being bi-polar"; she had headaches and was high strung. (Ed's note: Sounds like menopause to me.) She was quite outspoken and commanded quite a bit of influence on President Lincoln.who had obvious flaws in the "father" department and was often distracted when dealing with family matters.

President and Mrs. Lincoln really did love each other, and Shakespeare and Robert Burns. Mrs. Lincoln was keenly interested in his career and, quite ambitious herself, wanted to be married to a President.

Washington society was "very suspicious of her when she came to Washington." Mrs. Lincoln went over budget with White House decorating which became a scandal. By 1864 she had become a liability to President Lincoln. At one point she was nearly indicted for treason for purloining one of Lincoln's speeches (I believe that's what Mr. Epstein said) which she gave to a newspaper friend. "She created false invoices to get more money to decorate the White House."

Before they married, they broke up for two years which contributed to Lincoln's depression. Her family was not supportive of her marriage to him.

No evidence exists to support the theory President Lincoln was homoerotic. He is one of the most carefully documented Presidents in history.

Based on the blurbs, the "experts" give the book a big "thumb's up," and I can't wait to read it. Let's support independent bookstores, all right? They are dying fast. If you want them to survive, buy your books here and skip Amazon. Speaking of...Olssons looks tired and needs more revenue to spruce it up a bit and engender some life, but, wow! That gazpacho in the restaurant! For the money, the best around. (A dollop of sour cream on top would make it even better.)

I would love to see a book about the positives of Mary Todd Lincoln for which it seems from all the biographies about the Lincolns, there are none.

The audience: 90% Caucasian, 60% male, average age: 40. All 20+ seats taken.