Mary Todd Lincoln : her life and letters

"Biographical narrative and self-portrait of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, drawn from 609 of her letters covering 42 years."@en
"Biographical narrative and self-portrait of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, drawn from 609 of her letters covering 42 years."
"Biographical narrative and self-portrait of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, drawn from her letters."
"It is the belief of the editors that the most balanced view of Mary Lincoln, one that offers neither condemnation nor apology can be obtained from reading her letters."@en
""It is our belief that the most balanced view of Mary Lincoln--one that offers neither condemnation nor apology--can be obtained from reading her letters. More than six hundred of them survive, nearly all revealing, and in their cumulative effect, shattering. Like all letter, these have far greater value as evidence than the most candid diary or autobiography. Each one was written on a particular day under a specific impulse, with no thought that it would be judged in a larger context or, for that matter, read by anyone other than the person to whom it was addressed ... To us, the chief interest of Mary Lincoln's letters lies in their self-portrait of a women who had the intelligence, energy, and compassion to have ebeen ranked among the outstanding first ladies of the land, an anomaly in her era, but who came to the White house at the most tragic hour in the nation's history and was destroyed by the experience."--Page 4 of cover."