Synopsis
Most books about Abraham Lincoln end with his assassination. That’s the day this book begins. The Last Lincolns tells the largely unknown tale of the family’s fall from grace in the years and generations following the president’s murder. The story—rife with insanity, floods, fires, alcohol abuse, and squandered fortunes—is brought right up to what may be the last generation of Lincoln descendants, providing an unforgettable glimpse into the personal legacy left by the man who could unite a nation, but not his own family. Plus: this beautiful new paperback edition includes a family tree.
Publishers Weekly
This engaging book traces three generations of Abraham Lincoln's descendants in the century following his assassination. Lincoln was a larger than life historical figure, and Lachman, a journalist and novelist (In the Name of the Law), presents the lives of Mary Todd and their sons as dramatically as possible: Tad, the rambunctious prankster who grows into a serious, intelligent adolescent while exiled in Europe with his mother; Willie, the Lincolns' golden child, cut down in his youth by typhoid fever; and Robert, the most successful and complex of Lincoln's progeny, a soldier, lawyer, Secretary of War, and caretaker of his aging and increasingly unstable mother. Pulling together an enormous range of historical material, uncovering some little-known family stories-including tales of isolation, agoraphobia and swinging debauchery, as well as a possible connection to infamous, never-captured airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper-Lachman's chronicle is most notable for its liveliness, though more rigorous history buffs may balk at his novel-like prose. Those looking less for academic analysis than popular history-think Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels-will find much to enjoy in Lachman's family album. 16 pages b&w photos.
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