Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Love is eternal





Happy Birthday, Abraham Lincoln.

"Murder in Miniature" is set in the fictitious town of Lincoln Point, California, loosely placed somewhere between Mountain View and Palo Alto. Lincoln Point came about because I got a little tired of keeping track of potholes and one-way streets in the real cities that are the settings of my periodic table mysteries. I thought it would be easier and fun to make up a city.

It is fun, but not necessarily less work.

Once I chose the name of the town, I opened the door to hours of research on Abraham Lincoln, his life and times. It has been a pleasure to read Doris Kearns Goodwin as well as every Lincoln URL I can find. One site leads to another and I found myself this Valentine's week wondering what kind of courtship Lincoln had with Mary Todd. (I may also have been inspired by Ann Parker's nineteenth century courtship blogs on theladykillers.typepad.com.)

On again/off again for Mary and Abe, it seems, but they were married in Springfield, Illinois in November of 1842. The morning before the wedding, Mr. Lincoln is said to have told his minister, "I want to get hitched tonight." He was made to wait a day, however, so that proper arrangements could be made.

Abraham gave Mary a gold wedding ring engraved with the words "Love Is Eternal." The words for the ring exchange: "With this ring I thee endow with all my goods, chattels, lands, and tenements."

Romantic, huh?

6 comments:

Ann Parker said...

Oooooh, I like it! How old were they when they married, btw? Do you have that bit of information tucked away somewhere?
And thanks for mentioning Lady Killers!

Camille Minichino said...

She was 24; he was 33. His other famous line - when they first met, at a cotillion, he said, "I want to dance with you in the worst way."
Be still my heart!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful, short but sweet, article. Wish an Abe-like figure was running for Prez.....xoxoxo

Ann Parker said...

..."I want to dance with you in the worst way."
... Interesting! This sounds like the sort of slang my kids would use (i.e., "in the worst way"). Some things don't change....

Kathryn Lilley said...

I'm also reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. What an amazing man Lincoln was!

Camille Minichino said...

I loved that book, Kathryn.
Also there's a fairly new novel, "Mary" by Janis Cooke Newman that's terrific.

Not that anyone needs to know, but my Lincoln addiction started when I was 6 and entered the Abraham Lincoln elementary school in Revere, Massachusetts. For a few years I thought he was the only president!