The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln

This controversial biographical study of Abraham Lincoln examines his character and personality with an emphasis on the nature of his relations with men and women. C. A. Tripp asks whether Lincoln might have had a homosexual orientation, and sifts through the evidence in support of that conjecture. He uncovers the names of men in Lincoln`s life who were close friends, some of whom shared his bed (though Tripp acknowledges this was often an acceptable and innocent sleeping arrangement of the time), and he sees Lincoln`s relations with women as troubled and unsatisfying. To support his claim, he also discerns in Lincoln`s personality a sense of sadness and a tendency toward inwardness and wonders whether Lincoln`s sense of himself as an outsider may account for the political and moral views that sometimes ran against the grain of thought in his time. In an Afterword entitled A Respectful Dissent, historian Michael Burlingame claims that the evidence for Tripp`s intriguing speculation is somewhat thin ( possible but highly unlikely is his final word); another essay, by Michael B. Chesson, is more convinced, claiming that, for him, things fall neatly into place. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.