Absence of evidence has never stopped the insistent, and in 1995, during his book tour for his Lincoln Prize winning biography, David Herbert Donald found this most commonly asked question: “was Lincoln gay?” When ABC called me from Australia last year to ask that very question, it grew once again clear to me that not only Lincoln, but the subject of his private life has a global audience. The personal is political, feminist scholars believe, and nearly all would concede that the private life of public figures can influence the course of public events. And so we, students of history, can be grateflul to Jean Baker for summing up and refining her views, stating the case for the Lincolns, as she sees them. In this the 157th anniversary year of their wedding, the conversation continues. About their marriage, about them, about America, and, at some level, about the way we are on the eve of a new millennium.