LINCOLN LOVE LETTERS: LITERARY HOAX MADE IN S.D.

On Jan. 3, 1929, the Union published a long front-page interview with Wilma Frances Minor. Minor, a former actress and Union columnist, had recently created a sensation when she produced a collection of love letters allegedly written from Abraham Lincoln to Ann Rutledge and passed down through her family. One problem: the Lincoln love letters were forgeries.

Minor eventually confessed the letters were not actually written by Lincoln. She said they actually had been dictated from the spirit world, using her mother as the medium.

From the San Diego Union, Thursday, Jan. 3, 1929:

FORGERY OF LINCOLN LETTERS IMPOSSIBLE, SAYS SAN DIEGO WOMAN, AUTHOR OF ARTICLES

WILMA FRANCES MINOR REPLIES TO ATTACKS ON MAGAZINE MEMOIRS OF MARTYR PRESIDENT; WRITES LONG LETTER TO KANSAS EDITOR TELLING OF LITERARY FIND; SAYS SHE IS WILLING TO TRUST TO JUDGMENT OF AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Thrust by a series of Lincoln articles, appearing under her name in the Atlantic Monthly, into one of the most spirited literary controversies of recent years. Mrs. E.E. Akins of San Diego yesterday replied for the first time and at length to attacks challenging the authenticity of certain Lincoln love letters that she has incorporated in her magazine series.

While some eastern writers have attacked, with marked asperity, the genuineness of these letters, others have hailed them as one of the greatest literary discoveries in years.

Casting a new light on Lincoln’s great romance, his love for Anne Rutledge, the letters have furnished a nucleus around which Mrs. Akins, who is better known by her maiden name of Wilma Frances Minor, has woven a series of Lincoln memoirs. Not only has Mrs. Akins drawn from her family archives the group of Lincoln’s letters, but she has uncovered several missives bearing the name of his youthful sweetheart, Anne Rutledge.

WELCOMES SINCERE CRITICS Mrs. Akins said yesterday that she harbors no animosity against those Lincoln students, enthusiasts and biographers who are sincerely contesting the authenticity of the Lincoln-rutledge letters. She feels keenly, however, she said, about those contestants who, in their attempt to prove the letters false, are casting a blemish on the integrity of her ancestors.

A request, printed in William Allen White’s Emporia gazette, asking for anyone who has information that might shed light on the authenticity of the letters or incidents mentioned in them, to communicate with the paper, prompted Mrs. Akins yesterday to make the first reply to the attacks on her story.

“I am a personal friend of William Allen White,” Mrs. Akins said. “Because of this friendship I have outlined in detail the history of the letters, showing just how they came into my hands.”

A copy of this letter was given by Mrs. Akins to The Union.

ANNOYED BY INQUIRIES

So loud has been the echo of the eastern controversy been heard here hat Mrs. Akins has been forced, she said, to have her telephone disconnected and at times to leave the city to escape the numerous callers desirous of questioning her concerning the letters.

“I have been flooded with letters,” she said. “I have even been requested to appear at public gatherings. In publishing the letters I did not do so with the view of financial reward. I did it because I thought such a collection should be placed before the people of the nation.”