Catherine Clinton, Mrs. Lincoln: A Life, Signed

Description

Catherine Clinton painted a fascinating portrait of First Lady Mary Lincoln with Mrs. Lincoln: A Life.

Mary Lincoln’s story is inextricably tied with the story of America and with her husband’s presidency, yet her life is an extraordinary chronicle on its own. Born into an aristocratic Kentucky family, she was an educated, well-connected Southern daughter, and when she married a Springfield lawyer she became a Northern wife. The Lincolns endured many personal setbacks, including the death of a child and defeats in two U.S. Senate races along the road to the White House. Mrs. Lincoln herself suffered scorching press attacks.  

She was the first presidential wife known as the “First Lady,” and it was in this role that she gained her lasting fame. The assassination of her husband haunted her for the rest of her life. One of the most tragic and mysterious of nineteenth-century figures, Mary Lincoln and her story symbolize the pain and loss of Civil War America.

Near Fine. Signed and dated. Clinton, Catherine.

MRS. LINCOLN: A LIFE. New York: Harper Collins, 2009.  Later printing, 415p., ft., illustrations.