Fanny Seward: A Life
Trudy Krisher has breathed life back into a woman who died much too young. Using Seward’s invaluable diaries written right before, during and after the Civil War, Krisher has created a book that reads like a novel and is filled with fascinating details about the lives of the Washington, D.C. elite. The daughter of William Seward, Secretary of State for Abraham Lincoln, Fanny Seward lives a charmed life in many ways: she has every imaginable advantage of the times: her own menagerie of pets, a liberal education, thanks to the progressive thinking of both her parents and a special place in the family as the youngest child and only daughter of four.
Her family enjoys taking meals together and playing games, reading and going to the theater. Though extremely shy, Fanny is very observant and interested in the extraordinary events of her time. Her mother, also shy and unwell, lives primarily in Auburn, NY where she raises her daughter in the early years, exposing her to feminist ideas. Her father is equally liberal in his approach to the sexes, establishing a fund for Fanny so she will not have to marry unless she chooses to do so. On the fateful night when assassins attack and murder President Lincoln, Fanny is at home nursing her father, who was badly injured in a carriage accident. Suddenly, two armed men break into the home and try to kill Seward as he lies in his sick bed. Fanny is witness to it all.
This is a wonderfully written book of a life bound up in our country’s most traumatic hour. A must read!
