Maureen Sylvester

“Two horrific murders, the first of a black man, the second of a white, form the backdrop to this speech. The first was the lynching of twenty-six-year-old Francis McIntosh in St. Louis. McIntosh was tied to a tree and burned alive. A grand jury being convened, the judge instructed them not to blame the mob, but rather those abolitionists who had stirred things up. He called one out by name—the minister and newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy. Lovejoy then fled St. Louis for Alton, Illinois, where the mob killed him anyway. In that trial, the jury chair had been part of the mob and the judge himself was called as a witness for the defense. In neither case was anyone found guilty. The death of the white man, Lovejoy, has a national impact. This is allegedly the moment John Brown decides to devote his life to the eradication of slavery. But both murders affect Lincoln deeply. In his speech, he warns of two possible threats to the republic. The first is found in the lawless actions of the mob, the second in the inevitable rise someday of an aspiring dictator. The gravest peril will come if the mob and the dictator unite.”
― Karen Joy Fowler, Booth

“when it’s all done, when life is almost over, what do you want to remember?”
― Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water

“Once you step out of your world, it doesn’t wait for you. The world he used to know is gone forever.”
― Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists

“Home should be like a soft cushion to fall upon at the end of a hard day.”
― Carlene O'Connor, Murder at an Irish Wedding