Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography Book

This is a well-written and absorbing biography of one of America's most controversial first ladies. Baker does an excellent job of putting Mary's story in the context of her place and time, and she has a dry sense of humor that made this particularly readable.

The only reason I didn't give this five stars was the author's treatment of two figures: Mary's daughter-in-law, Mary Harlan Lincoln, and Mary's son, Robert Lincoln. Baker suggests that Mary Harlan Lincoln was a closet alcoholic and that this was what might have damaged her relationship with her mother-in-law. Unfortunately, although she refers in an end note to circumstantial evidence in letters which supports this theory, she doesn't quote from any of the letters in question or even indicate where they can be found, so the reader has no means of evaluating the evidence for herself. As several other works of nonfiction and at least one novel have picked up on Baker's theory, I wish she would have offered more evidence for it.

I also thought that Baker's treatment of Robert Lincoln's institutionalization of his mother was unduly harsh. Given Mary's bizarre behavior at the time, his actions seem understandable, even if someone else might have been more forbearing. Moreover, as Baker herself makes clear, the understanding of mental illness, and especially of mental illness in women, in the 1870's was very imperfect, so it's hardly surprising that Robert should follow the conventional thought of his time.

Despite these two reservations, I recommend this book.