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TWO MARY TODD LINCOLN SIGNED BOOKS

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:6,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
TWO MARY TODD LINCOLN SIGNED BOOKS
<b>202. MARY TODD LINCOLN</b> (1818 - 1882) First Lady, wife of Abraham Lincoln. Mary Lincoln's life was beset with personal torment; following the death of her youngest son Tad and the assassination of her husband, Mrs. Lincoln's mental health deteriorated to the point where she required committal to a mental institution and spent the rest of her life in seclusion. Exceptionally rare and important set of two signed books from Mrs. Lincoln's years in the White House, each boldly signed "<i>Mary Lincoln 1864</i>" on the free front end paper. The set, in two volumes, is Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton's novel <i>Eugene Aram,</i> published in Philadelphia in 1862 by J. P. Lippincott & Co. Few relics from the Lincoln White House survive, as Mrs. Lincoln gave away or sold a large quantity of the family's personal possessions. Bulwer Lytton was one of Mrs. Lincoln's favorite authors, and following the death of her son and husband, she became more and more drawn to the works of English "spiritualist fiction". <i>Eugene Aram </i>is the tale of a schoolmaster driven to murder by poverty, tormented with guilt, and finally repents his actions. A nearly-identical signed pair of Bulwer Lytton's books <i>The Disowned </i>realized over $15,000 in our 1998 sale.<b> </b>The books are bound in contemporary half-calf with marbled covers and pastedowns and gilt spines, lightly rubbed at extremities but overall very good to fine. With custom slipcase. <b>$6,000-8,000</b>