Podcast appearances and mentions of Robert T Lincoln

The Politics of the Robert T. LincolnLincoln Son Close to Three Presidential Assassinations February 20, 2022 – Our President's Day edition focuses on how Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert T., detested politics after his father's assassination. “The Republican Party tried five times to run him for president,” Robert T.'s biographer Jason Emerson says. “He said ‘To me the presidency is nothing but a gilded prison.'”

Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary were the parents of four boys. Only one – Robert – lived beyond his eighteenth birthday. Author Jason Emerson spent nearly a decade researching the 82-plus years of Robert Lincoln's life, including his time as a Union soldier, minister to Great Britain, Secretary of War, and president of the Pullman Car Company. Mr. Emerson is the author of "Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln."   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Abraham Lincoln's eldest son, Robert, is the subject of a grim coincidence in American history: He's the only person known to have been present or nearby at the assassinations of three American presidents. In this episode of the Futility Closet podcast we describe the circumstances of each misfortune and explore some further coincidences regarding Robert's brushes with fatality. We also consider whether a chimpanzee deserves a day in court and puzzle over why Australia would demolish a perfectly good building. Sources for our segment on Robert Todd Lincoln: Jason Emerson, Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln, 2012. Charles Lachman, The Last Lincolns: The Rise and Fall of a Great American Family, 2008. Merrill D. Peterson, Lincoln in American Memory, 1994. Ralph Gary, Following in Lincoln's Footsteps, 2002. Sources for the listener mail segment: "Lyman Dillon and the Military Road," Tri-County Historical Society (accessed 11/06/2014). Charles Siebert, "Should a Chimp Be Able to Sue Its Owner?", New York Times Magazine, April 23, 2014. This week's lateral thinking puzzle is from Paul Sloane and Des MacHale's 1994 book Great Lateral Thinking Puzzles. Some corroboration is here (warning: this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

July 16, 2013. Robert T. Lincoln was Abraham and Mary's oldest and last-surviving son, yet little has been published about the lawyer, businessman and statesman who lived during one of the most progressive and dynamic eras in U.S. history. In his new book, Jason Emerson, after nearly 10 years of research - much of it done at the Library of Congress - draws upon previously undiscovered materials to offer the first truly definitive biography of this son of the 16th president. Speaker Biography: Jason Emerson is currently at work on a book-length history of Robert Lincoln's Vermont home, Hildene, and will soon publish a new book, "Lincoln's Lover: Mary Lincoln in Poetry." He also has contributed a chapter examining the relationship between Mary and Robert Lincoln to "The Mary Lincoln Enigma," a book of essays on Mary Lincoln. For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6205