1928 THE TRUE STORY OF MARY, WIFE OF LINCOLN – ABRAHAM LINCOLN FAMILY SIGNED

THE TRUE STORY OF MARY, WIFE OF LINCOLN – Containing the Recollections of Mary Lincoln’s Sister Emilie (Mrs. Ben Hardin Helm), Extracts from Her War-Time Diary, Numerous Letters and Other Documents now First Published. By Her Niece, Katherine Helm.

Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1928 first edition, 309 pages, good+, maroon cloth (hardcover), lacks its original dustjacket. This copy at one time owned by the Abraham Lincoln Bookshop in Chicago with the shop’s small book tag on rear pastedown.

Warm inscription by the author, and counter signed by Emily Todd Helm. Dated November 10, 1928, in Lexington, Kentucky.

Putting the lineage to President’s Lincoln’s wife, Mary.
1 – Robert Todd had 16 children with two wives
2 – Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1862) was born of Robert’s first wife
3 – Emilie Todd Helm (1836-1930) was born from Robert’s second marriage (thus Mary Todd’s half-sister). Emilie Todd married Ben Hardin Helm, a Confederate General, who died at the Battle of Chickamauga.
4 – Emilie was three years old when her half-sister left their Kentucky home. Mary went to live with her sister in Illinois, where she met her future husband, Abraham Lincoln.
5 – Katherine Helm (1857-1937) was the daughter of Emilie Todd Helm and Ben Hardin Helm. Thus, Katherine was Mary Todd Lincoln’s niece.
6 – Emilie and her daughter Katherine stayed with the Lincolns at the White House following the death of General Ben Hardin Helm.

Thus a unique Abraham Lincoln association signed piece.

besides this trade edition, this book was published in a limited edition of 175 copies There is an inset on the front cover with a panel of original damask drapery from the Robert Todd home in Lexington, Kentucky that hung there when Mary Todd Lincoln was a child. Usually the limited edition includes a printed letter, signed by Helm in type, attesting to the damask panel. drapery panel that hung in the Robert Todd home in Lexington when Mary Todd Lincoln was a child. The Limited Edition is currently valued at $2,500.