The Saga of Mary Todd

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But America wasn't ready for Camelot, and Mary was cast as an out-of-touch princess who picked fabric swatches while, on the battlefield, the Republic burned. Yet perhaps no woman in American history had a better excuse for trying to boost her mood with a little retail therapy. Mary had already lost a mother and a son, and was about to lose another son, as well as her husband. She seemed to know that too, possibly as a result of her excursions into the mysterious spirit world, a popular pastime in the traumatized living rooms of the Civil War. Seeking comfort wherever she could find it, Mary switched off the lights and called her period's version of a psychic hotline.

Smart, ambitious women who love to shop, have difficulty sticking to a budget and react to emotional upheaval by dabbling in New Age spirituality don't attract much attention nowadays. If eventually they become fond of prescription medications, as her best modern biographer Jean H. Baker believes that Mary did (thereby clearing the way for Betty Ford), they may even have a rehab center named after them.

Mary Todd Lincoln had no such luck, though--except, of course, to become the negative role model for every First Lady ever since and also, perhaps, for the First Husbands of tomorrow. If Mary's tortured ghost (and she believed in ghosts--they were among her only companions at the end) could offer those First Spouses any advice, it might come down to this: Stay in the background, avoid having your fortune told and don't--at least not before speaking to your spouse--purchase new clothes or change the White House wallpaper. Your nation may soften its view of you someday, but it could take a long, long time.