The Lincolns

portrait of a marriage

Ballantine Books trade pbk. ed.
  • 1 Want to read
The Lincolns
Daniel Mark Epstein, Daniel Ma ...
Not in Library

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

Check-In

×Close
Add an optional check-in date. Check-in dates are used to track yearly reading goals.
Today

  • 1 Want to read

Buy this book

Last edited by IdentifierBot
August 19, 2010 | History

The Lincolns

portrait of a marriage

Ballantine Books trade pbk. ed.
  • 1 Want to read

The first full-length portrait of the marriage of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln in more than fifty years, The Lincolns is a fascinating new work of American history by Daniel Mark Epstein, an award-winning biographer and poet known for his passionate understanding of the Civil War period. Although the private lives of political couples have in our era become front-page news, the true story of this extraordinary and tragic first family has never been fully told. The Lincolns eclipses earlier accounts with riveting new information that makes husband and wife, president and first lady, come alive in all their proud accomplishments and earthy humanity. Epstein gives a fresh close-up view of the couple's life in Springfield, Illinois (of their twenty-two years of marriage, all but six were spent there). We witness the troubled courtship of an aristocratic and bewitching Southern belle and a struggling young lawyer who concealed his great ambition with self-deprecating humor; the excitement and confusion of the newlyweds as they begin their marriage in a small room above a tavern, and the early signs of Mary's instability and Lincoln's moodiness; their joyful creation of a home on the edge of town as Lincoln builds his law practice and makes his first forays into politics. We discover their consuming ambition as Lincoln achieves celebrity status during his famed debates with Stephen A. Douglas, which lead to Lincoln's election to the presidency. The Lincolns' ascent to the White House brought both dazzling power and the slow, secret unraveling of the couple's unique bond. The Lincolns dramatizes certain well-known events with stunning new immediacy: Mary's shopping sprees, her defrauding of the public treasury to increase her budget, and her jealousy, which made enemies for her and problems for the president. Yet she was also a brilliant hostess who transformed the shabby White House into a social center crucial to the Union's success. After the death of their little boy, not a year after Lincoln took office, Mary turned for solace to spirit mediums, but her grief drove her to the edge of madness. In the end, there was little left of the Lincolns' relationship save their enduring devotion to each other and to their surviving children.Written with enormous sweep and striking imagery, The Lincolns is an unforgettable epic set at the center of a crucial American administration. It is also a heartbreaking story of how time and adversity can change people, and of how power corrupts not only morals but affections. Daniel Mark Epstein's The Lincolns makes two immortal American figures seem as real and human as the rest of us.From the Hardcover edition.

Publish Date
Publisher
Ballantine Books
Language
English
Pages
559

Buy this book

Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: The Lincolns
The Lincolns: portrait of a marriage
2009, Ballantine Books
in English - Ballantine Books trade pbk. ed.
Cover of: The Lincolns
The Lincolns
2008, Random House Publishing Group
Electronic resource in English
Cover of: The Lincolns
The Lincolns: portrait of a marriage
2008, Ballantine Books
in English - 1st ed.

Add another edition?

Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Published in
New York
Genre
Biography

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
973.7092/2, B
Library of Congress
E457.25 .E67 2009

The Physical Object

Pagination
xii, 559 p., [8] p. of plates :
Number of pages
559

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL23170878M
ISBN 13
9780345478009
LCCN
2009293363
Library Thing
5127117
Goodreads
5648418

Community Reviews (0)

Feedback?
No community reviews have been submitted for this work.

Lists

This work does not appear on any lists.

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
August 19, 2010 Edited by IdentifierBot added LibraryThing ID
April 16, 2010 Edited by bgimpertBot Added goodreads ID.
December 15, 2009 Edited by WorkBot link works
May 14, 2009 Created by ImportBot Imported from Library of Congress MARC record