The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln’s Widow as Revealed by Her Own Letters

Written in 1927 but barred from timely publication by the Lincoln family, The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln’s Widow as Revealed by Her Own Letters is based on nearly two dozen intimate letters written between Mary Lincoln and her close friend Myra Bradwell mainly during the former’s 1875 incarceration in a mental institution. By the 1920s, most accounts of Mrs. Lincoln focused on her negative qualities and dismissed her as “crazy.” Bradwell’s granddaughter Myra Helmer Pritchard wrote this distinctly sympathetic manuscript at the behest of her mother, who wished to vindicate Mary Lincoln in the public eye.

The manuscript and letters were thought to have been destroyed, but fortunately the Lincolns’ family lawyer stored copies in a trunk, where historian Jason Emerson discovered them in 2005. While leaving the manuscript intact, Emerson has enhanced it with an introduction and detailed annotations. He fills in factual gaps; provides background on names, places, and dates; and analyzes Pritchard’s interpretations, making clear where she was right and where her passion to protect Mrs. Lincoln led to less than meticulous research and incorrect conclusions.

“This is a complicated narrative about a complex woman. Rife with drama, the backstory, as told by writer Jason Emerson, is as compelling as the book itself. . . . In Pritchard and Emerson’s hands, Mary Todd Lincoln is no less enigmatic but just as fascinating as ever.”

— Stacy A. Cordery, Journal of Illinois History

“Reading these notes in conjunction with the reprinted letters, a more accurate account of Mary Lincoln’s insanity emerges. Rather than an unjustly imprisoned former First Lady, one finds a woman overwhelmed by grief and neuroses, grappling with the shadows enveloping her mind.”

— Sarah Bischoff, The Journal of Southern History