The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln
Was Lincoln gay? In a new book the late psychologist C.A. Tripp claims he found evidence that outs the 16th President—but not everyone agrees. Here's what you need to know about the controversy.
TRIPP'S SMOKING GUNS •Young Abe spent four years sharing a bed with his friend Joshua Speed; he later shared beds with other men. •Lincoln once wrote a poem about men marrying each other. •The President was terrified of wedding Mary Todd; theirs was a stormy marriage. •Lincoln had black moods all his life, perhaps because of his repressed homosexuality.
THE COUNTER-ARGUMENTS •Philip Nobile, initially Tripp's coauthor on the book, now says Tripp fabricated evidence. •Historians say bed-sharing was common in frontier times because mattresses were a luxury. •Lincoln and Todd had four children. •Most scholars trace Lincoln's melancholy to the death of his first love, Ann Rutledge.
THE BOTTOM LINE Whether Honest Abe was living a lie is still in question.
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