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Features a biographical sketch of the American actor John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865). Notes that Booth shot and killed the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865.
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Though written during her exile in England, from which she would not return until her death, Asia Booth Clarke's memoir of her famous brother was not published until 1938. She had given the "locked book" to a friend for keeping "to publish sometime if he sees fit." The friend did not see fit to publish it while Asia, her brother Edwin Booth, or her former husband John Clarke were still alive. So it was left to Eleanor Farjeon to complete the task after the death of her father. This is a unique look at the man who changed the world by assassinating Abraham Lincoln. Long viewed as a demon, fanatic, madman, and narcissist, Asia Clarke's memoir attempts to humanize the man she deeply loved and who was loved by many friends and family members. This fascinating account adds to the complexity and mystery of Booth and his actions. Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.
Her brothers were the matinee idols of the 1850's theater world; her father was a famous Shakespearean; she wanted to be an actress but the social rules of the era prevented it; Asia Booth, sister of John Wilkes Booth, endured a peculiar and often sad childhood with her flamboyant father, flighty mother and restricted ambitions. Her devotion to brother Johnnie led her to aid his anti-Union sentiments during the Civil War, and she was suspected of conspiracy in the Lincoln assassination. Historian Jane Singer imagines the dreamlike misery and mistakes of a little-known player in the Lincoln tragedy.
All of the known writings of John Wilkes Booth are included in this collection. Of this wealth of material, the most important item is a previously unpublished twenty-page manuscript discovered at the Players Club in Manhattan. Written by Booth in 1860 in a form similar to Mark Antony's funeral oration in Julius Caesar, it makes clear that his hatred for Lincoln was formed early and was deeply rooted in his pro-slavery and pro-Southern ideology. Also included in the nearly seventy documents are six love letters to a seventeen-year-old Boston girl, Isabel Sumner, written during the summer of 1864, when Booth was conspiring against Lincoln; several explicit statements of Booth's political convictions; and the diary he kept during his futile twelve-day flight after the assassination. The documents show that Booth, although opinionated and impulsive, was not an isolated madman. Rather, he was a highly successful actor and ladies' man who also was a Confederate agent. Along with many others, he believed that Lincoln was a tyrant whose policies threatened civil liberties. --From publisher's description.
Certain portions reprinted from: The unlocked book: a memoir of John Wilkes Booth by his sister Asia Booth Clarke (1938), published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, copyright 1938.
Historian Nora Titone takes a fresh look at the strange and startling history of the Booth brothers, answering the question of why one became the nineteenth-century’s brightest, most beloved star, and the other became the most notorious assassin in American history. The scene of John Wilkes Booth shooting Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre is among the most vivid and indelible images in American history. The literal story of what happened on April 14, 1865, is familiar: Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth, a lunatic enraged by the Union victory and the prospect of black citizenship. Yet who Booth really was—besides a killer—is less well known. The magnitude of his crime has obscur...
It is a tale as familiar as our history primers: A deranged actor, John Wilkes Booth, killed Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre, escaped on foot, and eluded capture for twelve days until he met his fiery end in a Virginia tobacco barn. In the national hysteria that followed, eight others were arrested and tried; four of those were executed, four imprisoned. Therein lie all the classic elements of a great thriller. But the untold tale is even more fascinating. Now, in American Brutus, Michael W. Kauffman, one of the foremost Lincoln assassination authorities, takes familiar history to a deeper level, offering an unprecedented, authoritative account of the Lincoln murder conspiracy. Working f...