Tad Lincoln's Father (signed)
Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1931. First edition. Black and white photographic plates. Original cloth over boards. Octavo. xiv, 206 pages.
Julia Taft and her two young brothers were often in the White House as playmates of the two youngest Lincoln boys, beginning soon after President Lincoln's inauguration in 1861 until the death of Willie Lincoln in 1862.
Julia was 16 years old at the time of which she writes, and thus is able to portray both a child's view of the Lincoln White House and its domestic life but also a more adult perspective of President Lincoln during his precious hours away from the tremendous cares of office. She writes that she was initially a bit frightened by the tall and rough-hewn frontier President, but that he won her over with teasing. She also shared a fond relationship with Mrs. Lincoln, who, lacking a daughter, took particular comfort in Julia's presence.
Interestingly, Julia Taft's half-brother, Charles Sabin Taft, was in the audience at Ford's Theatre the night Lincoln was shot. He was a physician and was one of the first doctors to reach the mortally wounded President.
A surprisingly uncommon first edition. This copy inscribed and signed by Julia Taft Bayne to her granddaughter, Dorothy Juliet West.
Ref. MONAGHAN 3247.
Bound in blue cloth over boards with gray and black ruling and gray titles to spine and upper board. Shallow bumps at spine ends, else fine.
Item #1608
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