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The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln is a book by C. A. Tripp about Abraham Lincoln (ISBN 0743266390).

The book made the controversial claim that Abraham Lincoln may have been gay or bisexual.

Tripp, a follower of Alfred Kinsey begins his study with a Kinseyian analysis of Lincoln's early sex life. Tripp concludes that Lincoln reached puberty at age 9, and, since Kinsey claimed that people who undergo puberty early tend to masturbate frequently and have early homosexual experiences, Tripp concludes that Lincoln masturbated frequently and had early homosexual experiences.

Lincoln's relationships with other men

Abraham Lincoln is known to have lived for four years with Joshua Fry Speed, when both men were in their twenties. They shared a bed during these years and developed a friendship that would last until their deaths. Carl Sandburg in 1926 implied that this relationship was sexual.

Others have argued that Lincoln and Speed shared a bed because of their financial circumstances, and that at the time it was not unusual for two men to share a bed - indeed, that Lincoln was open about the fact that they had shared a bed is seen by some historians as an indication that their relationship was in no way romantic.

Lincoln shared beds with several other men during his life, both earlier in his New Salem days, during his days riding the legal circuit in Illinois and Indiana, and later even while president. However, none of these lasted as long as Lincoln's bed-sharing with Speed. Amongst these was an army officer, David Derickson, assigned to Lincoln's bodyguard in 1862. Several sources characterize the relationship between the two as intimate, and it was the subject of gossip in Washington at the time (although it is unclear whether this gossip was about the possibility of a homosexual relationship). They shared a bed during the absences of Lincoln's wife, until Derickson was promoted in 1863. Again, Tripp interpreted this as a sexual affair. Derickson married twice and fathered 10 children, though Tripp did not consider this to be definite evidence of heterosexuality. Lincoln's stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, is also reported to have said that Lincoln "never took much interest in the girls".

Lincoln met Speed in Springfield, Illinois in 1837. When Speed left Lincoln and returned to his native Kentucky in 1841, on the eve of Lincoln's marriage to Mary Todd, Lincoln is believed to have suffered something approaching clinical depression. The book Lincoln's Preparation for Greatness: The Illinois Legislative Years by the late Illinois Senator Paul Simon has a chapter covering the period that Lincoln later referred to as "The Fatal First," which was January 1, 1841. That was "the date on which Lincoln asked to be released from his engagement to Mary Todd." Simon explains that the various reasons why the engagement was broken contradict one another and it was not fully documented, but he did become unusually depressed, which showed in his appearance, and that "it was traceable to Mary Todd, the socially prominent young lady he had been courting." Simon argues that Lincoln was never a "ladies' man," and that his prior unhappiness in courtship had never affected him so much as on this occasion. Various issues in Lincoln's young life at that time included politics, his law firm, Joshua Speed moving away, and Mary's relatives disapproving of their relationship. Some local people said at the time that he "went crazy," and a letter wrote to one of Lincoln's colleagues stated, "We have been very much distressed, on Mr. Lincoln's account; hearing that he had two Cat fits and a Duck fit since we left." Another account said that Lincoln was "having some 'painful' experiences in his romantic life." Lincoln still attended sessions of the Illinois House of Representatives on a regular basis, and even worked at his new law firm during this time. But, his work suffered greatly and he described himself as "the most miserable man living," and said "I must die or be better, it appears to me." During this time, he avoided seeing Mary, causing her to comment that he "deems me unworthy of notice."

Joshua Speed married Fanny Hennings February 15, 1842, and the two men seem to have consulted each other about married life. Mary Todd and Lincoln were brought together again by friends, and then married with little advance notice on November 4, 1842. Nine months later, August 1, 1843 their first child, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born. Despite having some political differences over slavery, Lincoln and Speed corresponded for the rest of their lives and Lincoln appointed Joshua's brother, James Speed, to his cabinet as Attorney General.

Lincoln's poem

A recent study has also pointed to homosexual themes in poetry written by Lincoln:

I will tell you a Joke about Jewel and Mary

It is neither a Joke nor a Story

For Rubin and Charles has married two girls

But Billy has married a boy

The girlies he had tried on every Side

But none could he get to agree

All was in vain he went home again

And since that is married to Natty

So Billy and Natty agreed very well

And mama's well pleased at the match

The egg it is laid but Natty's afraid

The Shell is So Soft that it never will hatch

But Betsy she said you Cursed bald head

My Suitor you never Can be

Beside your low crotch proclaims you a botch

And that never Can serve for me

Tripp claims that this poem is "a virtual certification of Lincoln's own engagement in homosexuality."

Criticism

David Herbert Donald disputes the findings, but Jean H. Baker, a student of David Herbert Donald and author of Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography (ISBN 0393305864) wrote the introduction to Tripp's book and supports Tripp's claims. Michael B. Chesson, professor at the University of Massachusetts and another student of David Herbert Donald wrote the afterward and also supports the book's thesis.

Time magazine addressed The Intimate World in a prominent cover article by Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness. Shenk states, "for men to share beds in the mid-19th century was as common and as mundane as men sharing houses or apartments in the early 21st." However, doing so with the same man for four years may have been uncommon in that time, just as it is uncommon for men today to share apartments together for more than a year or so. Time cites a scholar on 19th century sexuality, Ned Katz, to explain that the concepts of gender, sexuality and same-sex relationships were radically different in Lincoln's world compared to our own. However, it can argued that surviving homosexually explicit correspondence of the period, such as between Thomas Jefferson Withers and James Hammond, who also shared a bed, indicates that sexual demarcations are merely academic, and that the nature of human sexual desire remains unchanging.

C. A. Tripp began writing the book with Philip Nobile, but they fell out. The New York Times quotes Mr. Nobile saying "Tripp's book is a fraud," but so far has provided no details. Nobile is the author of sexually explicit literature including articles for Penthouse magazine.

Critics of the hypothesis that Lincoln was gay note that Lincoln married and had four children (even though it was not uncommon for gay men to have monogamous sexual relationships with women and father children at that time). They claim Lincoln as a young man displayed heterosexual behavior. Lincoln scholar, Douglas Wilson, in his book entitled Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln, notes the following: according to James Short, a friend of Lincoln's from his New Salem days, Lincoln used to enjoy telling this story about himself:

"Once when Mr L was surveying, he was put to bed in the same room with two girls, the head of his bed being next to the foot of the girls' bed. In the night he commenced tickling the feet of one of the girls with his fingers. As she seemed to enjoy it as much as he did he then tickled a little higher up; and as he would tickle higher the girl would shove down lower and the higher he tickled the lower she moved. Mr L would tell the story with evident enjoyment. He never told how the thing ended."

It is unlikely this hypothesis will ever be either confirmed or rejected (no matter how much evidence is accumulated on either side) and will likely remain an issue of interest and contention as long as Lincoln's name is remembered.

Tripp's book also includes an afterword by historian and Lincoln biographer Michael Burlingame, in which he states, "Since it is virtually impossible to prove a negative, Dr. Tripp's thesis cannot be rejected outright. But given the paucity of hard evidence adduced by him, and given the abundance of contrary evidence...a reasonable conclusion..would be that it is possible but highly unlikely that Abraham Lincoln was 'predominantly homosexual.'"

C. A. Tripp began writing the book with Philip Nobile, but they had a falling out. The New York Times quotes Mr. Nobile saying "Tripp's book is a fraud." Nobile wrote a critical review of Tripp's book in the Weekly Standard, in which he accuses Tripp of plagiarism.

Notes

Martin Duberman, "Writhing Bedfellows": 1826 Two Young Men from Antebellum South Carolina’s Ruling Elite Share "Extravagant Delight," in Salvatore Licata and Robert Petersen, eds., Historical Perspectives on Homosexuality, (New York:Haworth Press & Stein & Day, 1981), pages 85-99.

External links

• Book Questions Abraham Lincoln's Sexuality - Discovery Channel
• Article by Philip Nobile (who quit project with Tripp)
• "The sexual life of Abraham Lincoln" by Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com, Jan. 12, 2005 (requires subscription or viewing an ad before reading)
• The Lincoln Bedroom: A Critical Symposium Claremont Review of Books, Summer 2005

• Abraham Lincoln