"The Lincolns Portrait of a Marriage" by Daniel Mark Epstein

[Sequoia]

Really very good. The chapter where he won the first election was quite good and when Springfield, IL knew he won the whole city was so happy that some could not express their joy enough so they rolled around on the floor with happiness. (Homer Simpson!)

The chapter describes how thousands would flock to hear him speak and the media was astounded by such attention that had never been shown to a candidate so far. All I could think of was fast forwarding to now and the effect Obama had on voters.

[sam sarrha]

1. Lincoln's depression was due to knowing he gave his wife syphilis. he got it in a gay relationship

with his first law partner. his wife later went "Mad" in public, while shopping, due to the disease affecting her brain. she was kept away from public the rest of her life.

i find it so.... ironic, that the Party of Lincoln scape goats Gayness..

POX:genius,madness and the mysteries of syphilis by Debora Hayden cheap used on Amazon. a fascinating history of an endemic disease pandemic so devastating and Taboo.. it probably set back the Evolution of civilization about 300 years.

[Sequoia]

2. Nonsense.

There's no proof he had a gay relationship. Back then many people shared beds to keep warm. Abe said he got it from visiting a house of ill repute with a woman. He took these Blue Mass pills laced with Mercury to cure himself.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Okay, I'm putting on my 'feminist' hat right now, but don't be alarmed....

I've read a whole bunch of presidential and first lady history. I really enjoy it.

Let me say first thing that a man certainly can write a good, astute book about a woman. There, I said it. You don't see as many women writing biographies of men they have not met or known. The recent biography of Sandy Kofax is an interesting departure. But one day I looked at my case of biographies and two-thirds of the bios about women were written by men. The opposite pattern is much more rare.

But if there's one thing that reading about the Roosevelts has taught me, it's that men and women have a tendency to see things differently. And men are more likely to speak, write or be interviewed for the record. How many times have we read, say, that Eleanor "hated" sex? A lot. By male writers. Female writers note that seven pregnancies in ten years will do that to a girl. It's just an example in which the comments of both sides have validity, it's just that they see things differently. Marriages have two sides, so the Lincoln book might be a good one. Hard to say.

Now, heading from the top-rated first lady to the lowest-rated first lady...I've cruised the new Mary Lincoln biography and there doesn't seem to be that much that is compelling about her pre-White House life. Compared to ER, Lou Hoover, Florence Harding, Dolly Madison, etc., she seems like a slow read.

Have you read that book? If so, what do you think of it?

I will cruise this book.