Historians are certain of only one poem written by Mary Lincoln, the anonymous poem signed "Cathleen" from 1842. But for more than half a century, historians debated about a second poem that she could have written-and some writers even declared unflinchingly that she did compose.
The first great tragedy in the Lincoln family-in what would become a terrible tradition of family tragedies-was the death of Abraham and Mary's second child, Edward. Three-year-old "Eddie," as the family called him, was always a sickly child. In December 1849, he became seriously ill with consumption-or pulmonary tuberculosis-for which there was no known cure. For fifty-two days and nights Abraham and Mary worriedly nursed their son while Eddie lingered; but on February 1, just weeks short of his fourth birthday, the boy died.[1]
Mary, only thirty-one years old at the time, was so distraught by the loss that she shut herself in her room for days and refused to eat or sleep, forcing her husband finally to plead, "Mary, you must eat, for we must live."[2] Abraham suffered profoundly, but his only written mention of his loss, simple and painfully controlled, came three weeks later when he informed his stepbrother, "We lost our little boy.…We miss him very much."[3] On February 2, after a funeral service in the Lincolns' home, Eddie was laid to rest in Hutchinson's Cemetery. Five days later, an unsigned poem titled, "Little Eddie," was published in the Illinois Daily Journal newspaper.[4]
Since 1954, Lincoln scholars have speculated and debated over whether Mary or Abraham wrote the poem, mainly because the last line, "of such is the kingdom of Heaven," was engraved on Eddie's tombstone. But exactly which of the dead boy's parents wrote the verse was a mystery. Both Mary and Abraham read and wrote poetry, although none of their existing creations resembles Eddie's poem in diction or structure, and no mention of the poem has ever been found in any of their letters.[5]
In 1954, historian Harry Pratt suggested it was Abraham who wrote the poem, while in 1987 writer Jean H. Baker unabashedly asserted that "Little Eddie" was "a mother's production" due to its feminine language and maternal endearments.[6] The main arguments in favor of Abraham's authorship are that he seems to have written more poetry than his wife, and, most importantly, he could handle the loss and pain of death, while Mary could not. Debilitating and inconsolable grief were Mary's trademarks after every family tragedy. Could she muster the strength and presence of mind to compose such a moving poem? Or was the act of writing a catharsis for her overwhelming grief?
The answer to the mystery was revealed in 2012, when historian Samuel P. Wheeler discovered that Mary Lincoln did not write the poem; rather, it was penned by a St. Louis woman in 1849 "who most likely had no knowledge of the Lincoln family."[7] Since "Little Eddie" was published in the Illinois Daily Journal "by request," the poem was most likely published in a St. Louis newspaper and seen by either Abraham Lincoln or someone close to the Lincoln family and reprinted in honor of Eddie Lincoln.
Even though "Little Eddie" has been proven not to be a Mary Lincoln composition, the poem's history and the decades of disagreement over its authorship have made it a fascinating story within Lincoln lore, and have earned it a place in the Mary Lincoln poetry canon.
Little Eddie
Those midnight stars are sadly dimmed,
That late so brilliantly shown,
And the crimson tinge from cheek and lip,
With the heart's warm life has flown-
The angel of Death was hovering nigh,
And the lovely boy was called to die.
The silken waves of his glossy hair
Lie still over his marble brow,
And the pallid lip and pearly cheek
The presence of Death avow.
Pure little bud in kindness given,
In mercy taken to bloom in heaven.
Happier far is the angel child
With the harp and the crown of gold,
Who warbles now at the savior's feet
The glories to us untold.
Eddie, sweet blossom of heavenly love,
Dwells in the spirit-world above.
Angel boy-fare thee well, farewell
Sweet Eddie, we bid thee adieu!
Affection's wail cannot reach thee now,
Deep though it be, and true.
Bright is the home to him now given,
For, "of such is the kingdom of Heaven."
Anonymous
Notes
[1] U.S. Census 1850, Mortality Schedule for Springfield, Sangamon Co., Ill., 787, MS., Illinois State Archives; Untitled announcement, Illinois Daily Journal, Feb. 2, 1850.
[2] Mrs. John Todd Stuart, interview with Chicago Tribune, Feb. 12, 1900, John G. Nicolay Papers, LOC; Octavia Roberts, Lincoln in Illinois (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918), 67.
[3] Abraham Lincoln to John D. Johnston, Feb. 23, 1850, Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 1:76.
[4] "Little Eddie," Illinois Daily Journal, Feb. 7, 1850.
[5] For a full examination of the poem and its possible authorship, see Jason Emerson, "'Of Such Is the Kingdom of Heaven': The Mystery of Little Eddie," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 92, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): 201-21.
[6] Harry Pratt, "Little Eddie Lincoln-We Miss Him Very Much," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 47, no. 3 (Autumn 1954): 300; Jean H. Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1987), 126.
[7] Samuel P. Wheeler, "Solving a Lincoln Literary Mystery: 'Little Eddie,'" Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 33, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 34-46.
