Oh, For a Home of Rest!

In the aftermath of her husband's death in 1847, Eliza Paul Kirkbride Gurney, a Quaker minister, found herself continuing the traveling ministry he had begun. What she could not have anticipated was the correspondence that would unfold with Abraham Lincoln, one of the most improbable friendships in American history. Through letters that spanned the dark years of the Civil War, Gurney offered the president not just spiritual comfort but a rare window into the conscience of the Religious Society of Friends. Her words were treasured by Lincoln, carried close to his heart until the moment he fell at Ford's Theatre. This collection reveals Gurney not merely as a historical footnote but as a woman of formidable intellect and compassion who dared to speak truth to power in the nation's gravest hour. The letters illuminate both the private Lincoln, the man who ached for peace and rest, and the extraordinary courage of a Quaker woman who refused to let her voice be silenced.