The Shadows Rise: Abraham Lincoln and the Ann Rutledge Legend [Hardcover]

John E. Walsh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1993

In recent decades the Ann Rutledge story has been treated as mythical rather than as an account of Abraham Lincoln's first but doomed love affair. What was once the central episode in his youthful emotional life has been forced to the margins of Lincoln scholarship, or beyond. In The Shadows Rise, the first book-length treatment of the subject, John Evangelist Walsh restores Ann Rutledge to her rightful place in the historical record. In 1945 the noted Lincoln scholar James G. Randall stated in his Lincoln biography that no real evidence existed to confirm Lincoln's love for Ann or the tales of his profound grief at her early death. Could it be that Lincoln's Illinois law partner, William Herndon, concocted the famous legend? It was in an 1866 lecture that Herndon himself first told the story of this tragic romance. During the past three years two scholars, John Y. Simon and Douglas Wilson, began the rehabilitation of Ann with a reexamination of Herndon's papers. Now, in The Shadows Rise, Walsh transcends and transforms recent research, re-creating the Lincoln-Rutledge story in all its dramatic fullness and depth. Along with new material and new interpretations he supplies some old-fashioned common sense. A highlight is his convincing reconstructions of Herndon's many interviews with Lincoln's New Salem friends, which go far toward exonerating him of the charge that he led his witnesses. Also of significance is Walsh's fresh examination of the Mary Owens affair, in which Lincoln's offer of marriage was refused.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Reviewing the writings of Lincoln scholars Albert Beveridge, William Barton, Carl Sandburg, and James G. Randall, Walsh revives the story of Ann Rutledge and the role she played in Lincoln's formative years. Reexamination of the William Herndon papers by historians John Y. Simon and Douglas Wilson have led to renewed interest in Rutledge and her alleged affair with Lincoln. Walsh continues the search, giving credit to New Salem residents who knew Lincoln and Rutledge and attested to the special loving relationship between the two young people. No longer a myth, Rutledge clearly deserves a place in the study of Lincoln's life. Recommended for lay readers and for libraries that want a new addition on their shelf of Lincoln books.
- Patricia Owens, Wabash Valley Coll., Mt. Carmel, Ill.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The most detailed study of the Abraham Lincoln-Ann Rutledge relationship yet written. Carefully researched and convincingly argued, it should set to rest once and for all the widespread misconception that Lincoln's first love affair was a myth or that the sudden death of Ann Rutledge was an incident of little importance in his early life." Douglas Wilson, co-editor of an edition of Herdon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln "The Shadows Rise documents his periods of depression. Walsh recreates Lincoln's affair with Ann Rutledge, his first love. His moods seem to have been particularly severe after her death - though Walsh concludes that Rutledge died from typhoid, not, as was long supposed, the mortification of being torn between two men whose hands she had accepted."-Jurek Martin, Financial Times, 31st Jan 2009 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 187 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (July 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252020111
• ISBN-13: 978-0252020117
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,095,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Discovering the Truth, May 3, 2000

By 

John J. Raspanti (Manteca, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shadows Rise: Abraham Lincoln and the Ann Rutledge Legend (Hardcover)

The author tries to 'prove' that Ann Rutledge and Abe Lincoln were truely in love, and planned to marry before her untimely death. Does he achieve this lofty objective?. I think he does, using mostly quotes and stories, and the unfairly ignored book by Lincolns former law partner, Mr. Walsh walks the reader thru the history of New Salem, the ways of life back then, and the people that remembered Ann and Abe as they were. He writes about some historians, who for one reason or another, refuse to accept the possiabilty that part of Abe died with Ann in 1835. The writing is crisp and informative and very helpfull in understanding how it was to live in the 1830's and beyond. Most of all i believe Mr. Walsh achieved something else-thats always tricky when writing about mythical figures like Lincoln. He made him very human....highly recomended

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unraveling the rise of a shadowy legend, February 20, 2005

By 

Scott Alarik (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shadows Rise: Abraham Lincoln and the Ann Rutledge Legend (Hardcover)

The Abraham Lincoln/Ann Rutledge romance is once again being debated among historians; any who want to get to the source of the legend would do well to start here.
Walsh does not write histories, so much as stories about how history is written. He takes small but important moments in American history - Lincoln's fabled "Almanac murder trial," or the hanging of British spy Major Andre during the Revolutionary War - and methodically peels away the layers of revisionist history to give us an unvarnished look at the event through the eyes of those who experienced it. At the same time, he lets us see how layer upon layer of scholarly interpretation can muddy the waters of our past to the point that the truth is all but invisible. In "The Shadows Rise," he meticulously traces how Lincoln's chief 19th-century biographer, William Herndon, first heard eyewitness accounts that, while living in New Salem, young Lincoln fell in love with, and became engaged to, a lovely, bright and popular woman named Ann Rutledge. Tracing all existing accounts of former New Salemites, he puts together a convincing and warmly human portrait of Lincoln's first love, and of her tragic death. In all, more than 20 people who knew Lincoln and Rutledge in New Salem (the entire population of which was only around 100) testified the two were in love and engaged, but historians - often basing their opinions on other historians' analysis, rather than first-hand understanding of eyewitness testimony - have hotly debated the story since Herndon first went public with it shortly after Lincoln's death in 1865. The book succeeds in revealing a tender and telling chapter in young Lincoln's life, and in introducing us to a charming young woman it is difficult not to fall a little in love with yourself. Perhaps most importantly, it also shows how much confusion historians can cause when they spend too much time talking to each other, and not enough time listening to the real voices of the past. This is a marvelously readable book, equal parts history and detective story, that will have history buffs thinking about the past in some new and important ways.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real romance, August 24, 2007

By 

Richard Lawrence Miller, Lincoln author (Kansas City MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shadows Rise: Abraham Lincoln and the Ann Rutledge Legend (Hardcover)

Here is a bold and well-documented argument that the Abe Lincoln-Ann Rutledge romance was real and not the stuff of legend or outright fabrication. Walsh presents testimony from numerous persons who knew Lincoln and Rutledge. Although I don't accept every source Walsh uses, I find the cumulative impact of his research to be persuasive.