Explores the tumultuous marriage between Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd, including an examination of her illicit business dealings, alleged physical abuse, and their disagreements about values. Lincoln had good reason to regret his marriage to Mary Todd. Burlingame shows that, as First Lady, Mary Lincoln accepted bribes and kickbacks, sold permits and pardons, engaged in extortion, and peddled influence. The reader comes to learn that Lincoln wed...

"Born of privilege and raised amoung the nation's political elite, Mary Todd was a highly intelligent and outspoken young woman with a love for hoop skirts and a disgust for slavery. Her passion for politics would set the stage for her to meet young Abraham Lincoln, who would one day become President of the United States, and she his driving force. On a fateful night in April 1865, she would endure the unthinkable, and her life would be changed forever"--P....

Weaves the lives of Abraham and Mary Lincoln; Abraham the dirt-farmer's son turned Great Emancipator and Mary the emotionally fragile daughter of wealthy Southern slave-owners. Together, they ascended to the pinnacle of power at this crucial time in the nation's history. Abraham Lincoln's legacy reshaped the nation while the tragedy of his death left Mary reclusive and forgotten.

"From the prizewinning author of Mr. Timothy and The Pale Blue Eye comes Courting Mr. Lincoln, the page-turning and surprising story of a young Abraham Lincoln and the two people who loved him best: a young, marriageable Mary Todd and Lincoln's best friend, Joshua Speed. When sparky and independent Mary Todd arrives in Springfield, Illinois, in the 1840s to live with her sister, who is determined to find Mary a husband, she is astonished to find herself...

1875. Elizabeth Todd Edwards reels from news that her younger sister Mary, former First Lady and widow of President Abraham Lincoln, has attempted suicide. The shocking act followed legal proceedings arranged by Mary's eldest and only surviving son that declared her legally insane. The Todd sisters - maternal Elizabeth, peacemaker Frances, envious Ann, and much adored Emilie - had always turned to one another in times of joy and heartache. But when...