Overview

"In 2005, historian Jason Emerson discovered a steamer trunk formerly owned by Robert Todd Lincoln's lawyer and stowed in an attic for forty years. The trunk contained a rare find: twenty-five letters pertaining to Mary Todd Lincoln's life and insanity case, letters assumed long destroyed by the Lincoln family. Mary wrote twenty of the letters herself, more than half from the insane asylum to which her son Robert had her committed, and many in the months and years after. ""The Madness of Mary Lincoln"" is the first examination of Mary Lincoln's mental illness based on the lost letters, and the first new interpretation of the insanity case in twenty years. This compelling story of the purported insanity of one of America's most tragic first ladies provides new and previously unpublished materials, including the psychiatric diagnosis of Mary's mental illness and her lost will. Emerson charts Mary Lincoln's mental illness throughout her life and describes how a predisposition to psychiatric illness and a life of mental and emotional trauma led to her commitment to the asylum. The first to state unequivocally that Mary Lincoln suffered from bipolar disorder, Emerson offers a psychiatric perspective on the insanity case based on consultations with psychiatrist experts. The volume reveals Abraham Lincoln's understanding of his wife's mental illness and the degree to which he helped keep her stable. It also traces Mary's life after her husband's assassination, including her severe depression and physical ailments, the harsh public criticism she endured, the Old Clothes Scandal, and the death of her son Tad. Emerson outlines Mary's life in the sanitarium and under Robert's conservatorship, including her deep resentment of Robert, her many threats, her demands for return of property and possessions, and her escape to Europe to flee both imagined persecution by her son and her own public embarrassment. ""The Madness of Mary Lincoln"" is the story not only of Mary, but also of Robert. It details how he dealt with his mother's increasing irrationality and why it embarrassed his Victorian sensibilities; it explains the reasons he had his mother committed, his response to her suicide attempt, and her plot to murder him. It also shows why and how he ultimately agreed to her release from the asylum eight months early, and what their relationship was like until Mary's death. Of enormous interest to Lincoln scholars and nonscholars alike, the psychiatric-based conclusion addresses whether or not the former first lady really was ""crazy"" and for the first time provides readers with the lost letters that historians had been in search of for eighty years."

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9780809327713

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Reviews

"""With clarity and eloquence, Jason Emerson has re-examined an episode of First Lady history that has remained consistently fascinating and misunderstood for over a century. The issues of Mary Lincoln's mental health and her trial for insanity are presented for the first time in a context of sound medical information and a legal perspective - elements sorely lacking in all previous scholarship. There is no padding here; every word counts, and every word adds up to a riveting and until-now neglected chronicle begging to be told. The Madness of Mary Lincoln is precise, documented and detailed."" - Carl Sferrazza Anthony, author of First Ladies, America's First Families, and biographer of four individual First Ladies"""

With clarity and eloquence, Jason Emerson has re-examined an episode of First Lady history that has remained consistently fascinating and misunderstood for over a century. The issues of Mary Lincoln's mental health and her trial for insanity are presented for the first time in a context of sound medical information and a legal perspective - elements sorely lacking in all previous scholarship. There is no padding here; every word counts, and every word adds up to a riveting and until-now neglected chronicle begging to be told. The Madness of Mary Lincoln is precise, documented and detailed. - Carl Sferrazza Anthony, author of First Ladies, America's First Families, and biographer of four individual First Ladies

Author Information

Jason Emerson is an independent historian and freelance writer. His articles have appeared in American Heritage, American History, Civil War Times, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Lincoln Herald, and Lincoln Forum Bulletin and online at the History News Network (hnn.us). He currently is writing a biography of Robert T. Lincoln. Visit www.jasonemerson.com for more information.

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