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Barbara Hambly's historical novel The Emancipator's Wife is Columbia City's Library Book Group Selection for May. Since it is over 600 pages long I downloaded it to my Kindle on April 3rd as I thought it might take a while to wade through. Instead, I have been unable to put the book down and finished it this morning (4/23). Granted, I am a Lincoln fan and one of my favorite get-a-way destinations for a long weekend is Springfield Illinois but I had always looked down my nose at Mary Todd Lincoln. No more will I have such a low opinion of her. Barbara Hambly makes Mary Todd Lincoln's point of view spring to life and while I do not always agree with Mrs. Lincoln's behavior or her choices, I have a much better understanding of their origin.
The book begins with Mary Lincoln's insanity trial and from her "rest home" she reflects back over her life with the author using this format to describe Mary's life from childhood to her incarceration. I knew that Mary had lost two son's and then Lincoln but I had not realized that her mother had died when she was small and that she had an absent father figure. And I had forgotten that she lost another son following Lincoln's death. I did not place her in Chicago at the time of the great fire and although Barbara Hambly's description of Mary Lincoln's fire experience is fiction, even just being in the city at that time would have been very frightening. I knew about the carriage accident while she was lived in the White House but I did not realize before that time her health was so compromised with debilitating headaches and female discomforts. And finally I did not put together the health problems with the popular patent medicines at that time and the frequent use of laudanum in general which makes the probability of her being addicted to both opium and alcohol as Barbara Hambly surmises quite likely. And both of those substances probably contributed greatly to her behavior and her symptoms.
To compliment the story of Mary Todd Lincoln's life are the people that surrounded her. I was especially charmed by a fictional person named John who first meets Mary as she helps him when he is badly beaten as he and his family enter Washington DC escaping from slavery. Later he appears in the story as an attendant in the asylum and helps Mary get letters out to friends and smuggle friends in to help her gain her freedom. He also, in the meantime, helps her by pointing out her addiction and weans her off her use of the offending drugs, thereby clearing her head and helping her take the necessary steps to her own freedom as he was set free earlier by her husband.
Another very interesting person who Mary Lincoln befriends is her seamstress in Washington, Elizabeth Keckley. It was Elizabeth who first introduced Mary to the seance community.
The third friend of Mrs Lincoln who stood out for me was Myra Bradwell, who was not only involved in the seance behavior but also was a feminist and studied law. She was the friend that helped get Mary released and a woman who has earned her place in history by her own right.
Another thing the book brought out that makes sense but I had not thought about was how much Mary helped Lincoln to get elected and what an intricate part of his early career she was. Being both highly educated and from the upper class of Lexington, it was Mary that taught Lincoln finer manners. She took a man who had grown up without furniture or silverware and turned him into someone polished enough to function with the elite of the country at that time. I was aware of her behavior that made his time at the White House more difficult but I did not realize that it might well have stemmed from him pushing aside Mary's involvement once he arrived in Washington DC when she was accustomed to discussing all the current events with him. Mary is also criticized for spending too much money while she was first lady. I never really considered how she had everything she wanted growing up and how she felt she needed to keep up an appearance as First Lady. When she arrived at the White House it was in poor repair as far as decor and since she felt like she was shut out of everything else she took it as her thing to redecorate. Unfortunately she did not manage what she spent on clothes or furnishings very well.
Please be sure and find the links by clicking on the title and the author's name at the beginning of this blog and enjoy the videos embedded within the text. This novel of historical fiction was one I enjoyed very much and would highly recommend.
