An Unlikely Friendship

by Ann Rinaldi

First published 2007

Amazon

4.0(77)

The novel follows Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley from sharply different childhoods toward their meeting in wartime Washington. Mary grows up within a politically connected slaveholding family, while Elizabeth endures enslavement, sexual violence and separation before purchasing freedom and building a career as a dressmaker.

Their paths converge in the White House, where Keckley becomes Mary’s modiste, confidante and support through bereavement. Alternating perspectives explore genuine affection without erasing inequality: one woman is judged as the president’s wife, while the other must continually defend her autonomy in a society shaped by slavery and racism.