The Lincolns in the White House: Four Years That Shattered a Family

By Jerrold M. Packard

Book Overview

"Readable, well organized, well researched, and smoothly written. . . . Even those who know Lincoln well may learn something they did not know before."

--- The Washington Post Book World

From the day of his inauguration, Abraham Lincoln was confronted with a nation divided by a savage conflict but within the White House walls, Lincoln's family was as divided as the nation he led.

Criticized by the American public for her extravagance, and distrusted because of her Southern roots, First Lady Mary Lincoln's increasing mental instability would strain her marriage. The presidential couple was devastated when eleven-year-old Willie died in the White House of typhoid fever. Robert Lincoln's success at Harvard made his parents proud, but his relationship with them was troubled and would eventually result in his permanent, painful estrangement. The Lincolns' youngest son Tad, though physically impaired, remained the couple's joy; but the president's assassination coupled with Tad's early death all but destroyed Mary's fragile spirit. Mary finally retreated into deep seclusion, falling further into madness until her own death in 1882. The Lincolns in the White House is a moving and poignant portrait of the family life of America's greatest president.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312313039
• ISBN13: 9780312313036
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Good read on the Lincoln family in the White House

Errors appear in even the best edited works. Perhaps the next edition will correct the incorrect information about the "last" photograph. As one of the multitude of Lincoln fans I found this book to contain lots of personal information about Lincoln and his family that I had not read in collected form elsewhere. I value the author's collected research that gives us a brief peek into the life of a very private man with more than his share of family tragedy. The relationship with his sons and wife is much clearer to me now that I have read this work. I consider this a well-written, highly readable account of the A. Lincoln family in the White House and belongs on every Lincoln collector's, if not scholar's bookshelf.