About the Book
Written in 1927 but barred from timely publication by the Lincoln family, The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln's Widow, as Revealed by Her Own Letters is based on nearly two dozen intimate letters written between Mary Lincoln and her close friend Myra Bradwell mainly during the former's 1875 incarceration in an insane asylum. By the 1920s most accounts of Mrs. Lincoln focused on her negative qualities and dismissed her as "crazy." Bradwell's granddaughter Myra Helmer Pritchard wrote this distinctly sympathetic manuscript at the behest of her mother, who wished to vindicate Mary Lincoln in the public eye by printing the private correspondence. Pritchard fervently defends Mrs. Lincoln's conduct and sanity, arguing that she was not insane but rather the victim of an overzealous son who had his mother committed. The manuscript and letters were thought to have been destroyed, but fortunately the Lincolns' family lawyer stored copies in a trunk, where historian Jason Emerson discovered them in 2005. While leaving the manuscript intact, Emerson has enhanced it with an introduction and detailed annotations. He fills in factual gaps; provides background on names, places, and dates; and analyzes Pritchard's interpretations, making clear where she was right and where her passion to protect Mrs. Lincoln led to less than meticulous research and incorrect conclusions. This volume features an easy-to-follow format that showcases Pritchard's text on the left-hand pages and Emerson's insightful annotations on the right-hand pages.
Following one of the most revered and reviled, famous and infamous of the First Ladies, this book provides a unique perspective of Mrs. Lincoln's post-White House years, with an emphasis on her commitment to a sanitarium. Emerson's contributions make this volume a valuable addition to the study of the Lincoln family. This fascinating work gives today's Lincoln enthusiasts the chance to read this intriguing interpretation of the former First Lady that predates nearly every other book written about her.
About the Author :
Jason Emerson, the author of The Madness of Mary Lincoln, is an independent historian and freelance writer whose articles have appeared in American Heritage, American History, and Civil War Times magazines, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Lincoln Herald, and Lincoln Forum Bulletin. He is writing a biography of Robert T. Lincoln, to be published by Southern Illinois University Press.
Review :
"Not only has Jason Emerson uncovered letters by Mary Lincoln, he has uncovered an entire manuscript by James and Myra Bradwell's granddaughter, who tried to use her privileged position to sell the story to the less-discriminating press of her day. It is good to have the Pritchard manuscript in print at last, after eighty hidden years-to have both its insights and its embarrassing sororal prejudices. Emerson, by unearthing a new landmark in the historical treatment of the tragic Mary Lincoln, helps to reconfigure how we view the tragic ex-First Lady." - James M. Cornelius, curator of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum "With this edited volume, Jason Emerson makes an original and valuable contribution to our scholarly understanding of Mary Todd Lincoln's later years. It succeeds and builds on the intriguing and fruitful detective work that the editor achieved in The Madness of Mary Lincoln, which provided the most important and original insights into her later years that have been produced in at least the preceding generation. The result is a long-missing, yet vital puzzle piece that has long been missing that helps to complete our understanding of Mary Lincoln's commitment proceedings and her eventual release and final difficult years." -Kenneth Winkle, Thomas C. Sorenson Professor of American History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
"The tale of Mary Lincoln's mental derangement, her incarceration in a mental hospital, her release four months later, and her subsequent estrangement from her only surviving son forms one of the saddest chapters in the Lincoln family saga. When Jason Emerson wrote his revelatory study The Madness of Mary Lincoln (Southern Illinois University Press, 2007), he utilized valuable new letters he had discovered. In the present volume, he makes available the text of those documents and the dramatic story of their recovery from historical oblivion. Emerson deserves the thanks of all Lincolnians." --Michael Burlingame, author of Abraham Lincoln: A Life "Jason Emerson is a rising star in Lincoln studies, and this volume is further evidence that those of us who never tire of learning about the life and times of Abraham Lincoln are in his debt. This carefully crafted volume illuminates dark corners of Mary Lincoln's life and enhances our understanding of the First Lady after that night at Ford's Theatre. --Michael S. Green, author of Lincoln and the Election of 1860
"This companion to [Emerson's The Madness of Mary Lincoln (2007)] contains both the voice of Mary herself as well as an account of the (largely successful) contemporary efforts to silence her. Those wishing to retrace Emerson's detective work will find this illuminating."--Patrick A. Lewis, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
"Emerson's excellent recto notes counter Pritchard's rather biased tale, allowing the reader to quickly ascertain the inaccuracies and exaggerations of her chronicle. Reading these notes in conjunction with the reprinted letters, a more accurate account of Mary Lincoln's insanity emerges. Rather than an unjustly imprisoned former First Lady, one finds a woman overwhelmed by grief and neuroses, grappling with the shadows enveloping her mind."--Sarah Bischoff, The Journal of Southern History
"This is a complicated narrative about a complex woman. Rife with drama, the backstory, as told by writer Jason Emerson, is as compelling as the book itself. . . . In Pritchard and Emerson's hands, Mary
Todd Lincoln is no less enigmatic but just as fascinating as ever."--Stacy A. Cordery, Journal of Illinois History
"Emerson portrays Mary realistically but sympathetically [and] dispels the old extreme stereotypes."--Karen S. Campbell, editor for the Lincoln Society of Dayton, Let the Journeys Begin
In his The Madness of Mary Lincoln (2007), Emerson drew on much of the evidence he has compiled, edited, and annotated in this volume. This companion to that monograph contains both the voice of Mary herself as well as an account of the (largely successful) contemporary efforts to silence her. Those wishing to retrace Emerson's detective work will find this illuminating.
--Patrick A. Lewis "The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society" (1/1/2011 12:00:00 AM)
"The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln's Widow: As Revealed by Her Own Letters. By Myra Helmer Pritchard. Edited by Jason Emerson. (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, c. 2011. Pp. xviii, 186. $19.95, ISBN 978-0-8093-3012-6.) Myra Helmer Pritchard lays bare the hidden story of Mary Todd Lincoln's brief confinement in an insane asylum through a series of letters between Lincoln and Pritchard's grandparents, James B. and Myra Bradwell. Held from publication by Robert Todd Lincoln's family, the 1927 manuscript depicts Abraham Lincoln's oldest son, Robert, as a selfish, conniving caretaker who wished to rid himself of his troublesome mother. Meanwhile, Mary Lincoln appears as an embattled woman neglected by the nation after her husband's death and unjustifiably sent by her son to an insane asylum in 1875. Only the BradwelIs remained true friends in her greatest time of need. As editor of Pritchard's account, Jason Emerson explains that the narrative acts much like a "defense brief against the notion of Mary Lincoln's insanity," as Pritchard attempts to vindicate her grandparents' role in Lincoln's release (p. xvi). Emerson's excellent recto notes counter Pritchard's rather biased tale, allowing the reader to quickly ascertain the inaccuracies and exaggerations of her chronicle. Reading these notes in conjunction with the reprinted letters, a more accurate account of Mary Lincoln's insanity emerges. Rather than an unjustly imprisoned former First Lady, one finds a woman overwhelmed by grief and neuroses, grappling with the shadows enveloping her mind. Robert Lincoln, the Bradwells, and Mary's sister Elizabeth Edwards struggled to find an adequate solution to Mary's mental instability, reassuring her that she was not insane but hesitating to press for her release from the asylum. Thus, despite Pritchard's careful shaping of the historical record, Emerson reveals through Mary Lincoln's few friends and relatives the sad truth of her insanity." --SARAH BISCHOFF, Rice University
--Sarah Bischoff "The Journal of Southern History" (11/1/2011 12:00:00 AM)
