Recent Read: Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton

For a variety of reasons, I've been really intrigued lately by Abraham Lincoln, and I've read several books about the wives of famous men. A friend loaned me a copy of Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton and I breezed right through it over the July 4 weekend when it wouldn't stop raining in Atlanta. It was a fascinating read. A lot of what's in it sounded somewhat familiar from the recent historical fiction book I reviewed called Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, which was about Elizabeth Keckly, Mary Lincoln's dressmaker and assistant who turned out to be one of her only friends near the end of Mary Lincoln's life.

Even so, there was plenty I learned about Mary Lincoln by reading this book that were just too interesting not to share. For one, it sounds like the First Lady was a bit difficult to handle throughout her life. She had a mind of her own as a child and continued to do things the way she wanted for the rest of her life. That meant advising her husband on politics in a way that wasn't done (or at least done more privately). A Kentucky native and an Illinois resident for much of her life, Mrs. Lincoln continued to keep one foot, so to speak, in the South and one in the North for all her days. She had family members who served on both sides of the Civil War, and had to do quite a balancing act while her husband was president. I think most of all, two things bothered me about Mrs. Lincoln's life after her husband's assassination: her mental illness (real or supposed) and her financial troubles.

I can't imagine what it would be like to deal with the kind and amount of loss Mary Lincoln experienced in her lifetime: her mother at a young age, three of her four sons and her husband, the president, right before her eyes (well, she was shoved out of the room and missed being by him as he passed). No one can take that kind of loss without being changed in some way. Her changes, though, just made me sad. It seems like she was a lot for her remaining son Robert to handle. His solution was, at times, to have his mother live with him and his new wife, have her kept at a mental institution and to manage her finances the best he could (I'm not saying his choices were right or wrong. I'm sure he did what he felt was best.). It also sounds like Mrs. Lincoln was a compulsive spender. Even when she knew she couldn't afford it, she shopped and spent money lavishly, owed her creditors tons of money and continued to spend further. 

This book was very well written. It reads more like a novel than a dry biography; I liked Clinton's writing style. I learned a lot and still want to know more about the Lincolns. What a truly interesting couple.

If you want to review what I've read and written about the Lincolns previously, here are a couple posts to check out:

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini
Lincoln, Inc.: Selling the Sixteenth President in Contemporary America by Jackie Hogan 
John Wilkes Booth: Beyond the Grave by W. C. Jameson

Book review: John Wilkes Booth: Beyond the Grave by W. C. Jameson - See more at: http://betsyrm.blogspot.com/#sthash.uuzCA08v.dpuf

Book review: John Wilkes Booth: Beyond the Grave by W. C. Jameson - See more at: http://betsyrm.blogspot.com/#sthash.uuzCA08v.dpuf

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini

Erik Larson's Thunderstruck

I finished Erik Larson's Thunderstruck last night. I really wanted to like it more. A few years ago I read his The Devil in the White City and absolutely loved it. Thunderstruck is structured much in the same way: two separate but related stories come together in a great way. For me, Thunderstruck attempted to do that but just didn't quite get there for me. The two main characters didn't coincide until way too close to the end. And, I was much more interested in the murder storyline than the science storyline. If Larson could have cut down the science part and lengthened the murder part I'd probably be completely happy with this book. Overall, though, I found it interesting and somewhat enjoyable.

One part that was especially fun for me is that some of the characters frequent a wonderful London restaurant where I've been for dinner an afternoon tea: the Criterion. It's in Picadilly Circus and is one of the most beautiful restaurants I've ever visited. Movies have been filmed there and many famous Londoners had a drink at the bar. In Thunderstruck, in the chapter titled "To the Ball," it says:

Built in 1873, the Criterion combined glamour and raffishness, especially its Long Bar, for men only, where a Scotland Yard inspector might find himself in amiable conversation with a former convict. In its dining rooms painters, writers, judges, and barristers gathered for lunch and dinner. Later, after the theaters of the Strand and Shaftesbury Avenue closed for the night, the city's population of actors, comedians, and magicians thronged the "Cri" and its bar and its Grand Hall and its East Room and West.

Taking a photo of the inside of the Criterion would have caused me to embarrass myself, but here is their website which contains photos of its interior.

More recommended reading about Chicago

"Chicago, a gaudy circus beginning with the two-bit whore in the alley crib." -- Theodore Dreiser

"They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys." -- Carl Sandburg, "Chicago"

"She outgrows her prophecies faster than she can make them. She is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time." -- Mark Twain

By now I know y'all have figured out that I love to read about places I've been or am going to. Recently, I went to Chicago one more time to visit a friend who will live there for just a few more weeks before moving away.

I'd heard good things about Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, and requested it from my library. My name came up for it just in time, and I checked it out to take with me. I finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet on the way there, and was ready to start Loving Frank as soon as I got a moment. That moment didn't come until I had about four hours to myself before returning to the airport to come back home. However, I realized on the way to Michigan Avenue and the beach at Lake Michigan that that book was locked away with my luggage at our hotel and not in my handbag. Undeterred, I stopped in a bookstore on my way to the beach and asked for a recommendation based on my enjoyment of Middlesex and Devil in the White City. Here's what two associates came up with for me:

And here's what I was looking at as I read it. Pure perfection, I tell you.

Sin in the Second City is by Karen Abbott and is a fascinatingly juicy account of one of the most well-known brothels in U.S. history, the Everleigh Club. Though the book is nonfiction, it read like a novel and the style reminded me very much of Devil in the White City (that's what I was reading during my Chicago trip last summer. You can read about my take on that one here). The book combines all sorts of things, mixing them up in an interesting way: politics, bribery, sex, business, marketing, white slavery, and much more. The Everleigh sisters were savvy, successful business women who made quite a name for themselves.

I was back in Atlanta before I could start Loving Frank, but I've been enjoying it in the evenings on my patio, as thankfully, the temperatures have cooled down a bit lately. It's historical fiction and the story of a love affair between Chicago-area architect Frank Lloyd Wright and one of his clients, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. As I read the book, I felt its peaceful, easy flow, which explains why I felt so jarred as a dramatic event unfolded near the end of the book (I don't want to give it away for those who haven't read the book and plan to). I had to tell myself that its disruptive feel was the whole point. It was certainly an event and an end to the book that was very unexpected.

Wright made a name for himself in a Chicago suburb, Oak Park, and many of the homes in that area that he designed are still standing. The home he shared with his wife, Catherine, and their children is open to the public. If I can make it back to Chicago sometime, I'm going to be sure to check it out. I've also just learned that another home he designed in the Chicago area recently opened to the public. You can learn more about that house here.

Both of these books are quite good reads and present two interesting views of women around the turn of the 20th century in the Chicago area who are striving to break through societal restraints and create their own rules.