Louis Bayard

Louis Bayard's new novel is Courting Mr. Lincoln.

From his Q&A with Mackenzie Dawson for the New York Post:

Lincoln was open about sharing a bed with [his best friend, Joshua] Speed — was this a common arrangement at the time?

It was a common arrangement among bachelors because beds were expensive. [What was strange] was the length of time [they shared the bed] — three years. And they got married late in life.

What research did you do?

I learned as much as I can about these guys, and the book is a promiscuous mixture of fact and invention. The book that was helpful was “The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln” by C.A. Tripp. He was a Kinsey Institute sex researcher and the first to declare that Lincoln was homosexual. The book is a bit over-the-top and was savaged at the time, but it was the first to bring up that possibility. Although [Lincoln biographer] Carl Sandburg brought up in his 1926 biography that the friendship had a...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Louis Bayard's website.

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