Ida McKinley: The Turn-of-the-Century First Lady through War, Assassination, and Secret Disability by Carl Sferrazza Anthony (review)

Ida McKinley was destined for great things even before she met “the Major.” Highly educated, to a degree that many prominent men could not achieve, Ida Saxton was a bright and active young woman. She worked in her father’s bank in several capacities, eventually as manager, more as a testimony to her merit than to nepotism. Her success in the workplace, which was highly unusual for the late nineteenth century, was an indication of her mental acuity.

In his biography of Ida McKinley, Carl Sferrazza Anthony gives insight into her character beyond being an ornament and political tool to William McKinley. Portrayed as not only extraordinarily bright in her youth, but also physically fit, she favored hiking and physical exercise in stark contrast to her later public image as an invalid.

The ebb and flow of Ida’s health is instrumental in Anthony’s storytelling. Her varying health frequently corresponded with her husband’s political events and activity. Based in tragic truth, Ida’s epilepsy, or “infirmity” as they would call it, was not the only physical ailment she would contend with. Her illness was genuine but politically manipulated to portray her loving and doting husband as a gentle caregiver. Anthony supports this as reality by citing examples in every chapter. As together they faced several tragedies—including the deaths of both of their daughters, a spinal injury to Ida, her ongoing seizures, and a financial near-catastrophe along with the struggles of public life and political jockeying—the McKinleys valued one another in a loving and supportive partnership. This devotion did not end with her husband’s untimely demise; Anthony spends a full chapter on the newly widowed Ida’s visitations to “the vault” and her mourning process. Eventually she overcame her grief, like her other obstacles, through family support and her own strength of character.

Because her physical ailments are such an important component of her story, many readers would benefit from a better contextualization of the social view of epilepsy during the nineteenth century. Anthony makes reference to how it may have been viewed, but does not detail it for those without an existing understanding of the depth and pervasive stigma assigned to the affliction, which was tantamount to lunacy at the time. His attention and description of the possibilities of her spinal or nerve damage was appropriate and very helpful.

Carl Sferrazza Anthony enjoys a prolific career with a dozen books published. His storytelling style makes his work accessible and enjoyable to a wide audience. Anthony is very skilled at weaving the personal story with the political and making the reader feel intimate with the subjects through his narrative style. His use of “the Major,” Ida’s pet name for W. M., throughout is an effective example. Although at times the pendulum swings toward the political over the personal, it always returns to Ida, while providing context.

The introduction to this book reflects his screenwriting abilities. Some sections border on historical fiction as Anthony skillfully recreated an episode with Ida, visitors, and her husband, including complete dialogue that was presumably gleaned from clues found in a personal letter. (He includes a footnote about the letter from the girl who is the other participant in this scene, but it is unclear how much of this is directly sourced and how much is conjecture.) One minor detraction to this work, which may be nothing more than a personal preference of this reviewer, is the use of endnotes and their structure. Although a useful key is provided for the abbreviations used in the endnotes, the indicators themselves are unnecessarily convoluted. A single endnote may cover a page or more, and several different direct quotations within the text requires the reader to hunt through the notation to discover the...