Love Is Eternal (review)

124CIVIL WAR HISTORY to North Georgia; moreover, it is an item imperatively needed by Civil War collectors. Mr. Coulter has been equally at home in writing Confederate history and in writing Georgia history. Wormsloe belongs in the latter category. It is a distinguished account of the eminent Jones-DeRenne family, but the chief periods of interest are the colonial and early federal eras. There is relatively little relating to the Civil War, but the volume is a good antidote to the current cult of the common man as the hero of history in that it demonstrates how a cultured and articulate family wielded an influence important out of proportion to its numbers. Richard Barksdale Harwell Richmond, Virginia. Love Is Eternal. By Irving Stone. (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company. 1954. Pp. 468. $3.95.) a good many years ago Honore Morrow wrote a three volume novel, sympathetic and detailed, of the married life of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd. Now Irving Stone, the author of several vivid biographical novels, has presented a praiseworthy novel on the same theme. It spans the period from Mary Todd's final Kentucky years as a girl of twenty to her departure from the White House five weeks after the death of her husband. Although a popular girl, sought after by eligible Kentucky suitors, Mary Todd desired wider horizons before deciding on marriage, and promptly accepted the invitation of her married sister, Elizabeth Edwards, to make her home in Springfield, Illinois. Patiently Mr. Stone etches the life of Springfield in those pioneer, growing days. Stephen Douglas, a rising star in the political scene, paid her a great deal of attention, but her interest and curiosity were more deeply aroused by the gangling lawyer Abraham Lincoln. The courtship which followed was by no means smooth or unruffled. Indifferent as to his personal appearance, instinctively hostile to the false niceties of Kentucky gallantry, with a humble origin and a rough-hewn education, Lincoln offered a bleak prospect for the "polish" which Mary Todd hoped to effect. Nevertheless, she was a discerning young woman, and soon detected an uncommon gentleness in this awkward suitor, whose qualities of character revealed him as a true gentleman. Still, there were misunderstandings, antagonisms , and delays, until the couple was married in November, 1842. Together they shared grief and pleasure. Together they dreamed dreams and knew the bitter flavor of defeat. In Washington, in the late 1840's, they shared the experience of Lincoln's one term as a member of Congress. After that it was Springfield and the law again, and Abe gone for days riding the Circuit. Into the later years of political turmoil they went together, and when Lincoln in 1860 was finally singled out as the Republican candidate for the highest office in the land, it was for Mary Todd the realization of a dream of long nurturing. Mr. Stone carries the story on into the years at the White House. When critics could not ruffle the patience of Lincoln, they snapped at his wife. Along with the burden of war, he had to suffer the abuse directed at her. In this Book Reviews125 novel the author has brushed into relief the often ignored fact that Abraham and Mary Lincoln were humans — with all the doubts and perplexities humans have always known. Their adjustment to each other was difficult and at times precarious. Mary Todd never quite realized the speciousness of her aristocratic upbringing, and Abe was too honest and too intelligent to permit her to dominate his thought and action. Thus their marriage was by no means a "happy" one, but each partner learned the difficult lesson of loyalty despite the hopelessness of any fully rewarding, complete understanding. Mr. Stone is keenly aware of these problems, and in treating Abraham and Mary Lincoln as human beings — often bedevilled, often at odds, but supremely loyal to each other — he has created a warm, appealing, and convincing portrait. ARNOLD GATES Garden City, New York Books Received Delmar, Vina. Beloved. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1956. Pp. 382. $3.95.) Henry, Robert Selph, editor. As They Saw Forrest. (Jackson, Tennessee: The McCowat-Mercer Press. 1956. Pp. xvi, 306. $5...