Mary: A Novel - Hardcover

Newman, Janis Cooke

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 193156163X ISBN 13: 9781931561631

Publisher: Macadam Cage Pub, 2006

Synopsis

An engrossing novel about Mary Todd Lincoln – one of history’s most misunderstood and enigmatic women.

Writing from Bellevue asylum — where the shrieks of the other inmates keep her awake at night — a famous widow can finally share the story of her life in her own words. From her tempestuous childhood in a slaveholding Southern family through the opium-clouded years after her husband’s death, we are let into the inner, intimate world of this brave and fascinating woman.

Intelligent, unconventional–and, some thought, mad–she held spiritualist séances in the White House, ran her family into debt with compulsive shopping, negotiated with conniving politicians, and raised her young sons in the nation’s capital during the bloodiest war this country has ever known. She was also a political strategist, a comfort to wounded soldiers, a supporter of emancipation, the first to be called First Lady, and a wife and mother who survived the loss of three children and the assassination of her beloved husband.

Interwoven with her memories of the past, she describes life in the asylum, where the treatment for lunacy is bland food, cold baths, and the near-lethal doses of chloral hydrate. It is here where we meet her friends, the anorectic Minnie Judd, who is starving herself to win the affection of her beautiful husband; and to Myra Bradwell, the suffragist lawyer who helps her win her freedom.

A dramatic tale filled with passion and depression, poverty and ridicule, infidelity and redemption, this is the unforgettable story of Mary Todd Lincoln.

About this title

Review:

Praise for Janis Cooke Newman:
"The Russian Word for Snow [is] a nail-biting adoption saga with a happy ending."
-- "People
""Lovely, image-laden prose...lingers in the reader's mind."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
..."about the alchemy of desire, courage, grace...[Her] story is compelling. It is poetry. It is true. It held me transfixed as I read."
-- Beth Kephart, author of the 1998 National Book Award finalist A Slant of Sun

PRAISE FOR "MARY"

"One of those rare books that turns the reader into an admiring fan of both the author and her subject. You feel a compulsion to urge others to read it."--"USA Today "
"Like its protagonist, "Mary" is bold, happy to trample upon convention. It is also an old-fashioned pleasure to read . . . Newman daubs period detail like an Impressionist, splashing in lines that intensify her color."--"The Plain Dealer "(Cleveland)

PRAISE FOR "MARY"
"One of those rare books that turns the reader into an admiring fan of both the author and her subject. You feel a compulsion to urge others to read it."--"USA Today "

"Like its protagonist, "Mary" is bold, happy to trample upon convention. It is also an old-fashioned pleasure to read . . . Newman daubs period detail like an Impressionist, splashing in lines that intensify her color."--"The Plain Dealer "(Cleveland)"

PRAISE FOR MARY
"One of those rare books that turns the reader into an admiring fan of both the author and her subject. You feel a compulsion to urge others to read it."--USA Today

"Like its protagonist, Mary is bold, happy to trample upon convention. It is also an old-fashioned pleasure to read . . . Newman daubs period detail like an Impressionist, splashing in lines that intensify her color."--The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)"

PRAISE FOR MARY

"One of those rare books that turns the reader into an admiring fan of both the author and her subject. You feel a compulsion to urge others to read it."--USA Today

"Like its protagonist, Mary is bold, happy to trample upon convention. It is also an old-fashioned pleasure to read . . . Newman daubs period detail like an Impressionist, splashing in lines that intensify her color."--The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

From the Back Cover:

"USA"" Today" s Best Historical Fiction of the Year
A "Los Angeles"" Times "Book Prize Finalist
Mary Todd Lincoln is one of history s most misunderstood and enigmatic women. The first president s wife to be called First Lady, she was a political strategist, a supporter of emancipation, and a mother who survived the loss of three children and the assassination of her beloved husband. Yet she also ran her family into debt, held seances in the White House, and was committed to an insane asylum. In this irresistible novel, Mary Todd Lincoln shares the story of her life in her own words, allowing us entry into the inner, intimate world of this brave and fascinating woman.
"Mary" is one of those rare books that turns the reader into an admiring fan of both the author and her subject. You feel a compulsion to urge others to read it . . . Newman gives Mary a riveting voice . . . after reading "Mary, " you ll view stout little Mrs. Lincoln and her 19th-century sisters in a new, more respectful light. "USA"" Today"
Like its protagonist, "Mary "is bold, happy to trample upon convention. It is also an old-fashioned pleasure to read. "The Plain Dealer" (Cleveland)
JANIS COOKE NEWMAN is the author of the memoir "The Russian Word for Snow." She lives in northern California, where she teaches writing classes at the renowned independent bookseller Book Passage. Visit www.JanisCookeNewman.com.
Reading Group Guide available at www.HarcourtBooks.com."

About this edition

• Publisher: Macadam Cage Pub
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 193156163X
• ISBN 13: 9781931561631
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 707