Mary is a novel written in the first person, comprised of notes composed by Mary Todd Lincoln when she was an inmate of a lunatic asylum. She takes up her pen to block out the screams and moans of the other inmates and to save her own sanity. According to these notes, although she held séances in the White House and drove her family deeply into debt because of compulsive shopping, she was perfectly sane. She makes a good case for herself, despite occasional manic behavior and often uncontrollable grief. Mary was born to southern slaveholders in Kentucky, moved to Illinois when she was 20 to live with her sister and met Abe at a cotillion. His opening line was "Miss Todd, I want to dance with you the worst way." Their relationship was odd, to say the least. Lincoln, as portrayed by Janis Cooke Newman, was sexually repressed and feared Mary's passion. She was in an almost constant state of trying to seduce him, usually without success. Despite his gawky, angular, unlovely looks, she adored him--even when she had an affair with another to defuse some of her heat. How much of the bedroom scene is fact and how much fancy must be left to the reader to decide, but it does give credence to Mary's very forward manner and her later "passionate" approach to shopping.
She used her shopping expeditions to accumulate things that would "protect" her family--and finally herself, when she felt her son Robert's growing disapproval of her. In his statement to the "insanity" lawyer, Robert said, "I have no doubt my mother is insane. She has long been a source of great anxiety to me. She has no home and no reason to make these purchases." Mary saw them as talismans against disaster, and she certainly had suffered disasters in abundance. She buried three sons and was holding her husband's hand when he was assassinated by a bullet to the head. Her eldest son, Robert, was a cold, unfeeling, haughty shell of a man to whom Mary did not speak after she was released from the asylum to her sister's care. She spent four years in Europe and, when her health failed, returned to her sister's house, where she received her son once before she died.
"First Lady" is a term that was coined to describe Mary Todd Lincoln, while she was the President's wife. It was meant as a backhanded compliment, because she was front and center during much of Lincoln's term. Presidential wives usually stuck to their knitting, but not Mary. Her unconventional ways did her husband a great deal of good; indeed, it was her ambition for him that finally ignited his own ambition. She also helped him to become a great orator. Ultimately, her "unsexed" manner contributed to her being judged insane in 1865 and committed to Bellevue Place, an asylum in Batavia, Illinois, outside Chicago. No President has been more praised nor any first lady more vilified than Abraham and Mary Lincoln. Janis Cooke Newman brings a time, a place and a person to life in a wholly believable and compelling manner. --Valerie Ryan
Mary Todd Lincoln ranks as one of the most maligned First Ladies in U.S. history. Her husband has been written about over and over again in fiction and nonfiction, but Mary Lincoln not so much. The conceit of this novel, obviously the result of extensive research, is that while the widow Mary frustratingly languishes in a mental hospital, committed by her only surviving son, Robert, she puts pen to paper to compose her memoirs, to set the otherwise distorted record straight, and to keep a reassuring handle on her sanity. Mary alternates between events in her dramatic past and those in her humiliating present, proffering credible reasons for her individualistic ways, which included, contrary to generally accepted behavior for women back then, an active political consciousness. Mary also reveals a bold sexuality, which may surprise readers. From her words, recounting the exceptional circumstances in which she participated as a president's wife and widow, arises a poignant understanding of how she took advantage of the opportunities extended to her to fulfill her destiny. Brad Hooper
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Review
"This is the immensely readable, close-to-life story of America's best known and most controversial First Lady." -- Jean H. Baker, author of Mary Lincoln: A Biography
...inventive...A gripping blend of fact and fiction...appeals to history buffs and casual readers alike. -- Pages Magazine, September/October 2006
...mesmerizing...a gripping read that vividly portrays history in a way we all wish our high school history teachers had. -- Rocky Mountain News, September 22, 2006
...the immensely readable, close-to-life story of America's best known and most controversial First Lady...historical fiction at its best. -- Jean H. Baker, author of Mary Lincoln: A Biography
An old-fashioned pleasure to read...enliven[ed] with a verve that might have pleased, as well as appalled, Mary herself. -- Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 17, 2006
I could not put MARY down and I cannot recommend a book more. MARY is a very powerful novel. -- Pat Schroeder, President of the Association of American Publishers
Mary is one of those rare books that turns the reader into an admiring fan of both the author and her subject...Newman gives Mary a riveting voice. -- USA Today, October 10, 2006
Moving and with an almost palpable compassion for its subject, yet clear-eyed and even humorous at times...I will be re-reading. -- Historical Novels Review, November 2006
About the Author
Janis Cooke Newman is the author of the memoir, The Russian Word for Snow, published in the U.S., Germany, and Australia. Her travel writing has appeared in publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Salon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Dallas Morning News. She lives in Northern California, where she teaches writing classes at the renowned independent bookseller, Book Passage. Maryis her first novel.
