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Are You Prepared for the Storm of Lovemaking
Releasing from Simon and Schuster 6-Feb-2024, Are You Prepared for the Storm of Lovemaking?
Like a man with a beard? How about a sensitive warrior with a beard? On this day (July 23) in 1885, Ulysses S. Grant died. He had suffered from cancer for a long time and prepared for his death by writing his wife a letter and leaving it in his coat. He knew that when her time came, she wanted to be buried with him, so that meant he could not be buried in West Point (which had been his first choice) because at that time women could not be buried there. The problem was solved when right after Grant died, the mayor of New York City (where the Grants were living) offered a space in a park for a suitable monument. Today visitors can mount the hill in Riverside Park where a memorial to Grant holds the bodies of Grant and his wife. Read Grant’s poignant letter to his wife in our book Are You Prepared for the Storm of Lovemaking? Letters of Love and Lust from the White House![]()
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Image: Ulysses S. Grant. [Between 1860 and 1870] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2018669804/>.
On this day (July 16) in 1882, Mary Todd Lincoln died. Her life had not been a happy one. The first time she was scheduled to marry Abraham Lincoln, he called it off at the last minute. She didn’t give up that easily, and a year later they finally tied the knot. He was more interested in politics than romance, however. The few surviving letters he wrote to her show more interest in their children than in her. She compensated by spending heavily on clothes. Seeing her husband assassinated while he was sitting next to her didn’t improve her mental state, and her eldest son, when he grew up, had her confined to an asylum.![]()
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Image source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Todd_Lincoln
On this day (July 10) in 1889, Julia Tyler, the second wife of President John Tyler, died. Though she had grown up in New York, her husband had roots in the South, and when the Civil War broke out–after her husband’s term as president ended–she followed his lead as a supporter of the Confederacy. After his death (he was the only US president not to be buried in a coffin covered with the American flag) she returned to her childhood home, where she flew the Confederate flag. A passing group of Union soldiers, seeing this, started to burn the house down, but gave up the attempt when they learned to live there.
On this day in 1850 (July 9) Zachary Taylor died. He had led the troops that came to the defense of Texas (which was not yet a state) when it was invaded by Mexico. The United States loves its war heroes, and elected Taylor as its twelfth president. During his brief term, he laid the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. It was a hot day, and after giving a speech, Taylor refreshed himself by eating cherries and ice cold milk. This was generally regarded as the cause of his death four days later (gotta love 19th century medicine!) ![]()
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Image: Brady, Mathew B., or studio. Zachary Taylor, half-length portrait, head in profile to the right. [Between 1844 and 1849] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2004664062/>.
Happy Anniversary to Florence and Warren G. Harding! (July 8, 1891) Florence was older than Warren, but there is no doubt that she helped his newspaper business, by such improvements as hiring delivery boys instead of selling the paper only from the office. She also guided his political career all the way to the White House. One story has it that when they walked inside on Inauguration Day, she said "Well, Warren, I got you here. Now what are you going to do about it?" After his sudden death, she spent several days burning his papers so no one would be able to connect him to the corruption scandals that she knew were about to explode. ![]()
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Image: Harris & Ewing, photographer. Warren and Florence Harding. [Between 1919 and 1921] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2016863178/>.