From the celebrated author Susan Higginbotham comes the incredible story of Lincoln’s First Lady
A Union’s First Lady
As the Civil War cracks the country in two, Mary Lincoln stands beside her husband praying for a swift Northern victory. But as the body count rises, Mary can’t help but fear each bloody gain. Because her beloved sister Emily is across party lines, fighting for the South, and … South, and Mary is at risk of losing both her country and her family in the tides of a brutal war.
A Confederate Rebel’s Wife
Emily Todd Helm has married the love of her life. But when her husband’s southern ties pull them into a war neither want to join, she must make a choice. Abandon the family she has built in the South or fight against the sister she has always loved best.
With a country’s legacy at stake, how will two sisters shape history?
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An amazing glimpse into two very real, different women and their own intimate struggles during America’s vast Civil War
Well researched, well written, “The First Lady and the Rebel” tells the story of troubled Mary Todd Lincoln and her much loved half-sister, Emily Todd Helm, in a deeply personal, vivid, compelling story of the two sisters during the American Civil War. While Mary is the wife of President Lincoln, Emily is the wife of a Confederate general, which not only strains their relationship, but cast suspicions on Mary’s own loyalties in the war. Each woman suffers multiple tragedies and conflicts—those of Mary are well documented, but author Susan Higginbotham did solid research to unearth the story of Emily.
While brother-against-brother has often been explored in historical fiction of the Civil War, this book takes a close look at sister-against-sister. Neither was going to face each other on a battlefield with weapons, but they are none-the-less pitted against each other as the war drags on.
While this is fiction, the novel is well rooted in accurate historical fact and Higginbotham in her Author’s Note does the reader a great service by giving some historical facts, and explaining where she took liberties with the research.
While the story line itself is compelling—the courtships of Mary and Emily, their marriages, their lives—what really makes this novel stand out among Civil War fiction is the sensitive exploration of the women’s emotional lives and their troubled relationship.
Susan Higginbotham is an absolute treasure. Her research is meticulous, but she works all she knows into the story without info-dumps. She renders 150-year-old events edge-of-your-seat. She had me chuckling at times and weeping more than once, most of all during Lincoln’s assassination, which we witness through his wife Mary’s point-of-view. The lead-up is also haunting because we know what will happen. I’ve admired Lincoln since I was a child, and Higginbotham calls him “my personal hero” in her delightfully lengthy Author’s Note. But he’s no marble god here; he’s a convincing human being. Higginbotham’s other challenge is to make a sympathetic character of Mary’s sister Emily, the devoted wife of a Confederate general, “who, as far as I know, went to her grave an unreconstructed Southerner” (Higginbotham’s “Conversation with the Author” in the backmatter). Higginbotham pulls it off for both Emily and her husband, Benjamin “Hardin” Helm. I may despise what the South was really fighting for, even Hardin’s fatal sense of honor, but Higginbotham renders the couple as rounded humans, loving and lovable though very much of their time and place without a twenty-first-century makeover. Bravo, Ms. Higginbotham. I can hardly wait to savor your novel about the abolitionist Brown family.
I love historical fiction books and the fact that this was set during the Civil War, was a new experience for me. Reading about the lives about Mary Todd Lincoln and her half-sister, Emily, was interesting. the bond these sisters share is impressive. Though they are on opposite sides of the war, their relationship is strong.
It’s obvious that the author did a lot of research and does a wonderful job of sharing this with her audience. The story is shared from two points of view…Mary Todd and Emily. And you are drawn into their lives and will experience all of the loss they experienced. What an emotional story that is definitely worth exploring.
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
This duel perspective novel is my first read by Susan Higginbotham. Mary Todd Lincoln and Emily Todd Helm are sisters. Both are married to important men. Mary becomes the wife of Abraham Lincoln, and Emily becomes the wife of General Benjamin Helm, a southern general.
I found this an intriguing look at the Civil War from a woman’s perspective. The author begins the book by tracing both sister’s courtships and marriages. The courtship of Abraham Lincoln and Mary was quite interesting as the did more discussing of politics and books then they did of Mary. I got ticked at Mary saying to herself she would prefer a little more hand holding and kissing than discussion. But once married, Abraham was always supportive of his “Molly.” Both Mary and Emily were married to men who were away from them a great deal of the time: Abe because of his political life and then become president and Ben due to his military assignments.
Mary and Emily both felt conflicted throughout the war. Mary was supportive of the union, but had family in Kentucky and wanted them safe including Emily. She also had brothers and stepbrothers serving in the Confederate forces. Emily was a staunch supporter of the confederacy but was close to Mary as well as Abe. Abe even nicknamed her Little Sister. Higginbotham shows the deep angst that developed in families as they were torn asunder by opposing viewpoints. As both sisters lost their husbands, one to assassination and the other to war casualty; their later lives weren’t what they hoped them to be.
Well written and very informative, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Civil War from a woman’s viewpoint. The historical research was evident throughout this book. The closing information on the later lives of both Mary and Emily was very interesting.
The First Lady and the Rebel by Susan Higginbotham is a fabulous novel describing a lesser-known facet of Mary Todd Lincoln then what we usually learn and think about when we think of her, her relationship, and her husband President Abraham Lincoln. This novel places us right into the turmoil (external and internal) of Mary and her sister Emily Todd Helm during the Civil War.
External as Mary has to deal with the struggle of having her sister’s loyalty to “the other side” the South, as Mary is aligned with the North and her Husband, President Lincoln. Internal as Mary has to choose between family and spouse and what is right and what is wrong.
Ms Higginbotham does a fabulous job creating these images for us so that we can feel and see this struggle as if we are there as well.
Excellent read. 5/5 stars.