[8] Historian John Y. Simon reviewed the historiography of the subject and concluded, "Available evidence overwhelmingly indicates that Lincoln so loved Ann that her death plunged him into severe depression.

[10] In January 1921, the small, rough stone marking Rutledge's grave was replaced with a granite monument inscribed with the text of the poem "Anne Rutledge," from Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology:[11][12] Out of me unworthy and unknown The vibrations of deathless music: "With malice toward none, with charity toward all."

I am Ann Rutledge who sleeps beneath these weeds, Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln, Wedded to him, not through union, But through separation.

[17][18] Through the 1920s, Lincoln biographers generally repeated and elaborated on Herndon's claims that the relationship was romantic, including Ward Hill Lamon, Albert J. Beveridge, and Carl Sandburg.

While no major biographers have denied that Lincoln and Rutledge were close, several historians have claimed that the evidence of a love affair between them is tenuous at best.

[20] Biographer Stephen B. Oates flatly denied a Lincoln-Rutledge romance, writing in 1977 that "there is no evidence that Ann and Lincoln ever had anything more than a platonic relationship.

[14] Since then, the matter has once again been in dispute, with the romance narrative being accepted by some Lincoln scholars and biographers, such as Michael Burlingame[16] and Doris Kearns Goodwin,[22] but rejected by skeptics such as Lewis Gannett[16] and David Herbert Donald.

[a] Gannett wrote in 2005 that "Nearly sixty years after James G. Randall delivered a seeming coup de grâce to the Ann Rutledge legend, the legend may be nearing a second death,"[14] but in 2010 conceded that "One might conclude that Wilson's interpretation is unassailable," noting continuing scholarly support for the thesis.

[16] In 2004, historian John Y. Simon reviewed the historiography of the subject and concluded that "Available evidence overwhelmingly indicates that Lincoln so loved Ann that her death plunged him into severe depression.

Following Ann's death, Lincoln (Henry Fonda) visits her graveside and makes the fateful decision to leave home and pursue a law practice in Springfield.

Actress Mary Howard played Ann Rutledge in John Cromwell's 1940 film Abe Lincoln in Illinois.

The episode was written by Wyllis Cooper and also featured Jack Arthur as Offutt and Leora Thatcher as Hannah, with music by Albert Buhrmann.

An earlier, more traditional novel on the subject is Bernie Babcock's The Soul of Ann Rutledge, Abraham Lincoln's Romance, published in 1919.