Janis Cooke Newman is a writer whose essays and travel stories 

have appeared on Salon.com, in several Travelers’ Tales editions, 

and in various magazines and newspapers across the country. She 

is the author of the memoir, “The Russian Word for Snow” (St. 

Martin’s Press; 2001). Her historical novel, “Mary,” about the most 

confounding woman in American history, Mary Todd Lincoln, will be 

published in September 2006 by MacAdam/Cage.