Was Abraham Lincoln gay?
A controversial documentary re-examines the president’s relationships with men
DURING America’s civil war, in 1862, Abraham Lincoln reportedly began sharing a bed with his bodyguard, a soldier named David Derickson. The tittle-tattle was recorded in the diary of Virginia Woodbury Fox, the wife of Lincoln’s naval aide, who wrote about “a soldier here devoted to the president, drives with him, and when Mrs. L. is not home, sleeps with him”. She added: “What stuff!”
Explore more
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Was Abraham Lincoln gay?”
From the October 5th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Angela Merkel sets out to restore her reputation
But her new memoir is unlikely to change her critics’ minds
The best books of 2024, as chosen by The Economist
Readers will never think the same way again about games, horses and spies
What to read to understand Elon Musk
The world’s richest man was shaped by science fiction
Tech and religion are very much alike
They both have gods, rich institutions and secretive cultures
Woodrow Wilson’s reputation continues to decline
A dispassionate new biography chronicles the former president’s hostility to suffrage
The cult of Jordan Peterson
What the Canadian intellectual gets right about young men