Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Last Lincolns by Charles Lachman

OK, I realize I'm weird, but to those of you who just like to read and perhaps have read a small set of encyclopedias for the fun of it or to prevent boredom The Last Lincolns is a treasure trove. I have read a couple books in between this and my last book review and one was an excellent English murder mystery but this is a cool book. Of course like I said you have to be a dedicated reader and somewhat of a history buff or just nosy perhaps but I actually know something of what became of the Lincoln family after the Presidents assassination now. The part about D. B. Cooper perhaps working for the family is totally weird but not why I finished the book, actually my mother had poisoned my view of Mary Todd Lincoln and I found myself more sympathetic towards the woman than I had been previously. I couldn't have told you before of Robert Lincolns involvement with the Pullman Company or that Mary Todd Lincoln exiled herself to Europe or was actually committed to an institution by her son for insanity. Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was the last Lincoln and he just seemed like a regular Joe in a way, except for the estate of Woodstock Farms and having all the cars and women. He did describe himself as a spoiled brat earlier in life which seemed to have been true but he wasn't pretending to be something he wasn't. The quirks of the generations replicating themselves is fascinating, especially their aversion to publicity or even remembering Abraham Lincolns birthday, and the amount of historical paper which was lost is probably astounding, they burned some, some was used to prevent erosion?
Charles Lachman who wrote this is the producer of Inside Edition which perhaps made his point of view more interesting to this child of television. This book is just a good read, I couldn't sleep last night and got up to read it several times, a bad deal since I had to get up @ 5 am this morning but well worth the time.
I got my copy from the library, you can too or buy it here on Amazon.

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