Editor's Picks

This week, don’t miss a fresh look at Mary Todd Lincoln, the real story of Rome’s gladiators, and a narrative examination of the Murdaugh murders

By Jim Kelly

Mary Todd Lincoln has always been in need of a good publicist. She dressed comically, shopped too much, chased after spiritualists, and was forced into a mental institution by her son. Her latest claim to fame is as the title character of the Broadway comedy Oh, Mary!, where she is depicted as a frustrated cabaret performer. In Lois Romano, she has found someone better than a publicist: a first-rate journalist who shows us the true Mary, complex for sure but invaluable to her husband’s career, a temperamental person who, despite tending to wounded soldiers during the war and suffering READ ON