Recently, I added this nifty carte-de-visite to my modest collection of Lincoln memorabilia–a memorial photograph that’s a composite of photos taken during his presidency.
Aside from what’s new in my collection, what’s new in my writing? While awaiting publication of The First Lady and the Rebel (coming in October!) I’ve been busy working on another novel, this one dealing with three women in the life of the abolitionist John Brown: his stoic, hardy second wife, Mary Brown, his progressive-minded daughter-in-law Wealthy Hotchkiss Brown, and his tempestuous, fiercely devoted daughter Annie Brown. Combined, their stories span a continent, although two of my characters found themselves just miles from my Maryland home: Annie, when she served as her father’s “watchdog” at his headquarters at the Kennedy Farm in Maryland prior to the raid on Harper’s Ferry, and Mary, when she traveled to Virginia to visit her husband on the night before his execution.
I’ll be posting more about these women (and the men in their lives) in the future. In the meantime, here are a few photographs related to Annie Brown, who later married a Samuel Adams. (If the third photograph looks as if it has been altered, it has been: in the original photograph, which can be seen on the Ancestry website, Annie is posing with two of her children.)
