January 16

Mary Lincoln's Dressmaker: Elizabeth Keckley's Remarkable Rise from Slave to White House Confidante 
By Becky Rutberg

As an African slave, Lizzie Hobbs suffered through being separated from family members and abuse by a white overseer, but she had a strong, caring mother and she received a rudimentary education including the sewing skills that would provide her livelihood after she bought her freedom.  Lizzie's story is a window into her time on many levels: the experience of a slave gaining freedom, a look at women's fashions of mid-nineteenth century, but also a window into Mary Lincoln's life. As Mrs Lincoln's dressmaker, Lizzie became a friend to a first lady who was temperamental and sharp-tongued but who had suffered great losses.  Sadly, a publisher's indiscretion would lead to the end of that friendship.

Two other books on Elizabeth Keckley have been published more recently: 

Mrs Lincoln's Dressmaker: The Unlikely Friendship of Elizabeth Keckley and Mary Todd Lincoln by Lynda Jones (2009)

Mrs Lincoln's Dressmaker, a novel by Jennifer Chiaverini (2013)

but Rutberg's book, a young adult biography, was the first.