New York Times
Published: December 26, 1938

Mrs. Crossman, 77, Booth’s Daughter

Famous Tragedian’s Heir Dies in Home of Her Son at the Age of 77 Years


Mrs. Edwina Booth Crossman, only daughter of Edwin Booth, died suddenly yesterday at the age of 77 in the home of her son, Edwon Booth Grossman at the Holley Chambers, 33 Washington Square.

Although interested for many years in social and charitable affairs, Mrs. Crossman had not been active for some time before her death. Her children and grandchildren had carried on in her stead, perpetuating the memory of her illustrious father. At every event relating to the great tragedian his daughter always was remembered. When members of The Players, to whom Edwin Booth gave his dwellin at 16 Gramercy Park as a clubhouse, honored the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1933, Mrs. Crossman was unable to be present, but a bunch of red and white roses was sent to her through her grandchildren, who represented her on the occasion.

It was to Mrs. Crossman that Edwin Booth gave the first recording of his voice back in 1888. Members of the family were not certain yesterday whether these rare discs, of fragile construction, were still in existence. It is believed that these records registered many of Mr. Booth’s famous Shakesperean parts.

In 1895 Mrs. Crossman published a book of letters she had received from her father during the most interesting periods of his colorful life. These letters gave the reader a keen insight into his rare personality and genius.
Mrs. Crossman was born in Fulham, England, on Dec. 9, 1861 during one of her father’s stage tours there. Her family came to the United States early in her life. She was educated at the Sacred Heart Convent in Philadelphia.

On Mar. 15, 1885, she became Mrs. Grossman, her husband being a banker of New York and Boston. Two children were born to them, both of whom survive. They are Edwin Booth Grossman and Mrs. Mildred Booth Tilton of Pasadena, Calif. Also surviving are three grandchildren, Edwina Booth Waterbury and Edwin Booth Waterbury, children of Mrs. Tilton, and Lois Fellowes Grossman.

Mrs. Crossman changed her name from Grossman for patriotic reasons during the World War.

Actor, theatrical manager. He was the son of renowned Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth Sr. and elder brother of actors Edwin and John Wilkes, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. An ardent unionist and supporter of Abraham Lincoln, he nonetheless suffered villification for his brother's crime, but recovered his career in theater. He was manager of the Boston Theater company and built and managed summer theater in Manchester-by-the-Sea. He appeared on stage together with Edwin and John Wilkes only once in "Julius Caesar."

1796: Junius Brutus Booth is born on May 1, 1796, in London, England.



1813: Junius makes his professional debut as an actor on December 13, 1813.


1814: While on tour in Europe, Junius (18-years-old) persuades Marie Christine Adelaide Delannoy (22-years-old) to elope with him from her mother’s home in Brussels, Belgium, on November 25, 1814.


1815: Junius marries Marie Delannoy on May 8, 1815, in London, England. Their first child, a daughter named Amelia Portia Adelaide, is born on October 5, 1815. She dies in infancy.


1817: Only three years after his professional debut, Junius finds himself engaged in a bitter rivalry with the great English actor Edmund Kean who emerges triumphant.


1819: Richard Junius Booth, son of Junius and Marie Booth, is born January 21, 1819, in London, England.


1821: In early 1821, 24-year-old Junius “elopes” with the beautiful Mary Ann Holmes. They sail to the United States arriving in Norfolk, Virginia, on June 30, 1821. Their first child, Junius Brutus Jr., is born on December 22, 1821, in Charleston, South Carolina.



1822: Junius and Mary Ann arrive in Harford County in the summer of 1822 and by 1824 own their own 150 acre working farm where many of their children are born.


1823: Junius and Mary Ann’s oldest daughter Rosalie is born on July 5, 1823. Over the next 17 years eight more children are born.


1833: Three of the Booth children (Mary Ann, Frederick, Elizabeth) die of cholera in 1833 and are buried in a cemetery on the Booth farm. Edwin Thomas Booth is born on November 13, 1833.



1835: Asia Sydney Booth is born on November 20, 1835.



1835: Henry Byron Booth, son of Junius and Mary Ann, dies of smallpox on December 28, 1835, while the family is in England. He is 11-years-old at the time of his death.


1838: John Wilkes Booth is born on May 10, 1838.



1840: Joseph Adrian Booth is born on February 8, 1840.



1851: Junius and his first wife are divorced on April 18, 1851; Junius and Mary Ann are officially married on May 10, 1851.


1852: Junius Brutus Booth Sr. dies on a riverboat on the Ohio River while on tour on November 30, 1852, at the age of 56, of a mysterious illness that may have been caused by drinking unclean water from the river. By the time of his death, Junius is considered to be one of the greatest actors ever to appear on the American stage. He is buried in the Baltimore Cemetery, but his remains are moved to Green Mount Cemetery in 1869.



1853: Mary Ann Booth rents out the family’s Baltimore townhouse and moves to Tudor Hall with her four youngest children.


1857: After it becomes apparent that neither John Wilkes nor Joseph is cut out for farming, Mary Ann rents out the Booth farm in the summer of 1857. None of the Booths ever live on the property again.


1859: Asia Booth marries comic actor John Sleeper Clarke on April 28, 1859, in Baltimore, Maryland. They have six children, two of whom become actors.



1860: Edwin Booth marries former actress Mary Devlin on July 7, 1860. They have one daughter named Edwina born December 9, 1861. Mary dies in 1863 of consumption.



1864: Between November 26, 1864, and March 22, 1865, Edwin Booth appears in 100 consecutive performances of Hamlet at the Winter Garden theatre in New York. For nearly 30 years, Edwin continues to be one of the most popular actors in America.



1865: On the evening of April 14, 1865, well-known actor John Wilkes Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. In a failed attempt to escape, John Wilkes is killed in Virginia on April 26, 1865, after the barn in which he is hiding is surrounded by Federal troops. John Wilkes is 26 at the time of his death.


1869: Edwin marries former actress Mary McVicker on June 7, 1869. They have one child, Edgar, who dies at birth. In 1869, the Booth family cemetery plot is established in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. Many (but not all) members of the family will eventually be buried there.



1881: Mary McVicker Booth dies on November 13, 1881, her husband Edwin’s 48th birthday.



1883: Junius Brutus Booth Jr. dies on September 16, 1883, in Manchester, Massachusetts, and is buried at Manchester’s Rosedale Cemetery. “June” had successful careers as a theatre manager and a hotel owner. He married several times and had six children.




1885: Mary Ann Holmes Booth dies in New York City on October 22, 1885, and is buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.




1888: Asia Booth Clarke dies in Bournemouth, England, on May 16, 1888, and is buried at Green Mount Cemetery. Asia had moved to England with her husband and children in 1868 and never returned to the United States during her lifetime.



1889: Rosalie Ann Booth dies on January 15, 1889, at her brother Joseph’s home in Long Branch, New Jersey, and is buried at Green Mount Cemetery. She never married.



1893: Edwin Booth dies at The Players in New York City on June 7, 1893. The Players is a gentleman’s club founded by Edwin in 1888 that still exists today. Edwin is buried next to his first wife in Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston.



1902: Dr. Joseph Booth dies in New York City on February 26, 1902, and is buried at Green Mount Cemetery. Joseph married twice and had no surviving children.

I found this program cover by Footlights La in Facebook.





HAMLET SHUT UP opens November 19, 2009 at Sacred Fools Theater Company and runs through December 19, 2009

www.sacredfools.org
In this photo: Footlights La (photos)

St. Columba's Chapel
55 Vaucluse Avenue
Middletown, RI 02842

"In the rear of the church, high up in the wall, is a peculiar yet mesmerizing window depicting a woman holding a dove to her breast. She stands in a brilliant blue niche constructed of hundreds of tiny rectangular pieces of tile-like pieces of glass. Around the niche is golden architecture. Although the artist and manufacturer of this window are unknown, the history of its donor is quite famous: this lovely window is dedicated to the first wife of the illustrious 19th century actor, Edwin Booth, whose fame has been eclipsed in our century by the notoriety of his brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Edwin Booth and his daughter, Edwina, summered in the Newport area, building a house just down the street from the chapel. They were involved with the construction of the church from the beginning and in 1885 donated this window - the first in the building - in memory of Edwina's mother, Mary Devlin, who died in 1865."

http://www.jlsloan.com/columba.htm

- The website incorrectly dated Mary's year of death. She died in 1863, not 1865.

I finally found something on Edwina Booth's husband, Ignatius Grossman. Unfortunately no photos of Ignatius I've been able to find, yet.

Ignatius Booth Grossman (Crossman)
Born: Jun. 6, 1852, Hungary
Death: Sep. 6, 1920, New York

According to the book, Beyond The Garden Gate By Norma H. Mandel, written on Celia Laighton Thaxter, Ignatius Grossman came to live with the Thaxter's family in 1868 at the age of 15 years old from Hungary. Celia Laighton Thaxter was an author, painter, gardener, and one of the most popular New England poets of the late nineteenth century. Her nonfiction works, An Island Garden and Among the Isles of Shoals, continue to engage readers; "her prose," Smithsonian Magazine has said, "has a timeless quality that makes delightful reading today."

Here's an exerpt from this book:
http://books.google.com/books?id=zVLKse4oepoC&pg=PA69&dq=ignatius+grossman&lr=#v=onepage&q=ignatius%20grossman&f=false

Pg. 69-70:
"As the year 1868 began, Thaxter summarized her family life to her friend Mary Lawson:
…Mr. Thaxter has not been well this winter, has suffered from rheumatism, and rheumatism in the chest, which isn’t a good place to have it. He declares he never will spend another winter in this climate. I have an addition to my family in the shape of a young Hungarian by the name of Igantius Grossman, about fifteen years old. We have taken him for good. He is a lovely boy and a great comfort…The Thaxter boys are as rampageous as usual. Karl and Ignatius go to grammar school together. Mr. Thaxter teaches John and Lony and is fitting John for High School…

The reference to Ignatius Grossman was a positive note. It is a mystery as to where Levi and Celia might have found this young Hungarian boy, but possibly he was among the immigrant orphans who came to America and were allowed to be adopted upon their arrival. Eventually Ignatius went to college, married Edwina Booth, daughter of actor Edwin Booth, and moved to New York. But he continued to keep in touch with Celia.
In 1891 she wrote to Annie: Ignatius and Edwina were coming to Portsmouth from Jackson Oct. 12th to see me, but alas I fear I shall not get there in time…"


On May 16, 1885, Ignatius married Edwina Booth, daughter of 19th century Shakesperian actor Edwin Booth. They had two children: Edwin Booth Grossman, an artist, and Mildred Booth Grossman. During World War 1, Edwina and Ignatius changed their last name to Crossman for patriotic reasons.

* Also from "Letters of Celia Thaxter," found some correspondences from Celia to Ignatius: http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/let2soj/thaxter.html

1) To Ignatius Grossman. Shoals, June 4, 1893.
Do write and tell me about yourselves. I hear Mr. Booth is better, at least the newspapers say so, and that he is going with you to Narragansett Pier. Alas, poor man! why cannot Fortune free him from his captivity of weakness and discomfort, if not of pain, and the worn-out body be dropped for a fresh and happy one! Oh, I trust, when my time comes, that I may be allowed to go in a moment. Death is not cruel, but life under such circumstances is terrible; the long suffering with no hope of recovery is the misery, not the touch of death that opens the doors into a fresh, new world. Well, I want to know about it all, where you are and how it is with you beloved four, parents and children dear, as well as with the poor grandfather. Do write to me. I only hope all is well with you.

2) To Ignatius Grossman. Portsmouth, November 24, 1893.
I am so delighted to hear of Edwina's "new departure," as it were; nothing could be better than that she should do just this thing. No one could do it so well, and I am sure it will be the most interesting book imaginable, and so valuable, not only to the present age, but for time to come. I am glad she is doing it, -- it is wise and right and fitting that she should. She will reap a reward in the gratitude of the world, and in the satisfaction of doing for her wonderful father what no one else could do, and of rendering full justice to his genius and his most marvelous powers, and all the beauty of his character, which no one knows so well as his dear, only child. I am perfectly delighted that she is doing it, I repeat, and congratulate her and you both with utmost love.

3) To Ignatius Grossman. Portsmouth, January 19, 1894.
How gladly, dear Ignatius, would I send you "Lilliput Levee," if I only had it here! It is out at the Shoals, and might as well be in Kamtschatka for any possibility of getting at it. I only bring a very few books in here, and I will try hard and see if I can't get it for you in Boston. Dear Ignatius, if you want the loveliest thing for your children, get "Parables from Nature," by Mrs. Alfred Gatty, and read "Not lost, but gone before," to your dear children. The heavenliest thing, and as good for you as them. There is an illustrated edition, and do get it right off; you and Edwina will love it. Mrs. Gatty was the mother of Mrs. Juliana Horatio Ewing, whose books for children are world-famous, -- "Jackanapes," and "Lob-lie-by-the-Fire," and "Daddy Darwin's Dovecote," etc. If you haven't all her things, get them by all means at once! But "Parables from Nature" you must have, illustrated edition. Mrs. Laura Howe Richards's "Nursery Rhymes" for children are so good! I dare say you have them, -- "Little John Bottlejohn," etc.; capital for very little ones.

* Lastly court case I came across in the New York supplement, Volume 74 By New York (State). Supreme Court, New York (State). Superior Court (New York), West Publishing Company, New York (State). Court of Appeals:

http://books.google.com/books?id=tNc7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA878&dq=ignatius+grossman&lr=#v=onepage&q=ignatius%20grossman&f=false

BACON v GROSSMAN
(Supreme Court Special Term New York County February 1902)

PERSONAL GUARANTY - ASSIGNMENT = EFFECT
A domestic corporation covenanting to dissolve a foreign corporation and distribute the assets agreed with the stockholders of the foreign corporation to guaranty. If they did not receive in liquidation $65 a share, to make up the difference, not exceeding $10; such stockholders promising to account to it for all the money received in liquidation in excess of such price. Held an agreement personal to the signers, and, where a party to the agreement transferred his stock subject to it, the guaranty of the domestic corporation did not pass to the transferee, and the stockholder is entitled to retain a payment under the guaranty.

Action by Nathaniel T Bacon against Ignatius R Grossman for money had and received. Complaint dismissed. Motion for new trial denied.

Selden Bacon, for plaintiff.
GJ Sproull, for defendant.

Has anyone seen any photos of Edwin Booth and Mary Devlin Booth together? I have not found any. I've only seen photos of him with his second wife.

Thanks for your assistance.

Friday, November 20, 2009, will be Asia Booth Clarke's 174th birthday. Asia was the Booth family historian and a gifted writer. We owe much of what we know about her family to Asia.



http://spiritsoftudorhall.blogspot.com/

In case I don't get a chance to post here tomorrow, I wanted to give a big shout out to the one and only EDWIN BOOTH. His birthday is tomorrow, Nov. 13. He will be 176 years old.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

For many years, some people have believed John Wilkes Booth was not killed in Virginia but escaped and headed west. The new Discovery Channel program Ghost Lab will explore this theory in an upcoming invesigation in Enid, Oklahoma.

According to the Ghost Lab website: "The Ghost Lab team investigates two locations rumored to be haunted by the ghost of John Wilkes Booth: a historic opera house in Texas and a furniture store in Oklahoma."

Booth family members Joanne Hulme and her sister Suzanne Mitchell Kline will appear on the show. Joanne and Suzanne are direct descendants of Junius Brutus Booth Sr.'s sister Jane Booth Mitchell. In addition, one of Jane's granddaughters, Cora Mitchell (Joanne and Suzanne's grand aunt), married Junius Brutus and Mary Ann Booth's youngest son, Joseph.

According to the Ghost Lab website, the episode will air on the Discovery Channel on Tuesday, November, 10, 2009, at 10:00 p.m. EST and again on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, at 1:00 a.m. EST.

The episode may also eventually be available for viewing online via the Ghost Lab site once it has aired on cable. Info about online viewing will appear here as soon as it's available.

For more information about Ghost Lab and the upcoming episode check out these links:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/ghost-lab/ghost-lab.html

http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_240002434.html?keyword=topstory

a day late with this one, but i thought, as probably one of the most innocent of the condemned, he deserves a consideration.

My sister sent me a recent Variety article this morning:I'm totally psyched, I hope this actually happens!

I just finished watching the new season of Ghost Hunters and lo and behold....next week's episode is going to feature Samule Mudd's house and see if they encounter John Wilkes Booth's ghost. Ghost Hunter is on the SyFy network, Wednesday. The episode is called "I am not guilty." Check your local listings.
 

Episode - 8/26 SyFy
Maryland's Samuel Mudd House; Virginia's Edgewood Plantation is the former home of presidents William Henry and Benjamin Harrison.

 

~ but if it wasn't in such incredibly bad taste, i would totally wear this shirt:

Han wasn't the only one.

i am still laughing at this.

: D

I'm addicted.....I'm currently collecting JWB and Edwin Booth cdvs, cabinet cards, etc. JWB is more desirable and tend to be up for grabs than his brother. But Edwin wasn't bad looking either.

                  

Leave a phone message for John Wilkes Booth.

http://www.johnwilkesphonebooth.com/

bardhlul has posted an interesting historical marker over at gettysburg1863. hadn't seen it before. didn't know it existed. check it out for yourselves.

: o p

in case you haven't seen it, this might be of interest: Junius hates Jackson.

History Detectives investigates a letter which indicates that thirty years before John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, Booth’s father threatened to kill another sitting president, Andrew Jackson.

The letter to Jackson reads, “You damn’d old scoundrel… …I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping.” It’s signed “Junius Brutus Booth.” The writer insists Jackson pardon two men who were sentenced to death. Why did the fate of these two men enrage such fury?

Was the Booth letter a hoax? Or does assassination run in the Booth blood?

you can download the transcription at the PBS site.

I found this article today titled "Edwin Booth — What Makes Us Truly Important?" It's a discussion on Edwin Booth and Aesthetic Realism. It was bit too deep for me...here's the link to the article.


http://home.roadrunner.com/~bcmnc/Bennett/ActorsAndDrama/Edwin_Booth_intro.html

Today Edwin Thomas Booth died today, June 7, 1893 at 1:17am at The Players. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass.

Interestingly, this date was also when he and Mary McVicker (another actress, his first wife was also an actress) were married in 1869. The second wife was mentally unstable and made Edwin's life a living hell. She died on Edwin's 48th birthday, Nov. 13, 1881.

Just finished reading the following books:

"Booth's Daughter" by Raymond Wemmlinger: "Edwina Booth, niece of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth and fianc to the son of architect Calvert Vaux, must leave America with her father when President Garfield is assassinated, forcing her to choose between her father and the man she loves."

"The letters and notebooks of Mary Devlin Booth" by Mary Devlin Booth, edited by L. Terry Oggel: This is the first complete edition of the letters and notebooks of actress Mary Devlin, Edwin Booth's first wife, and is the first reference of its kind in nineteenth-century American theatre scholarship. These documents provide a fascinating perspective on Booth, his life, and the development of his career, and include new materials recently uncovered through the editor's research. The volume is also a valuable guide to biograhical information about Booth's father and brother (John Wilkes Booth), and to studies of Mary Devlin Booth and her influence on her husband. In addition, it identifies sources that reflect certain mid-nineteenth-century attitudes and provides a clearer picture of the conventional role wives had in their husband's careers during that period.



If you are looking for used books at a good price, check out www.abebooks.com.

Yeah, that's right.  LINCOLN AND BOOTH: THE MUSICAL is not just a thing of my dreams, it is real!  And Terry Alford reviewed it!

http://www.newmusicals.com/Lincoln/lincolnpages/review_rogstad.html
If any of you have heard of this or know where I can get a copy, please let me know!

I was on Amazon earlier today and followed a link to this book:



I was surprised, when I thought about it, that I had never heard of anybody trying the Asia angle before.  I mean, she is a pretty lady with a mean husband in the nineteenth century, isn't that every historical novelist's perfect protagonist?  And she was even actually a writer!

The Amazon reviews didn't look too bad, so I was actually thinking of maybe ILLing this book, but then I found a sample excerpt online.  Sadly, Singer's book is full of really bad, really obvious tropes.  Asia's husband, John Sleeper Clarke, seems to have been merely caricatured as The Bad Husband.  Asia is self-conscious about her looks (did the author ever see her photos??  and personally, I would have put her down as the vain type, myself), and she wishes she were a man.  Asia has a bad-ass but beautiful black sidekick woman who hides guns on herself and is completely loving and loyal.  The bad guys (read, gov't soldiers), in contrast to Asia, spend pretty much all their talking time using racist language against Asia's beautiful black sidekick, so that we will dislike them automatically.  (Of course this is all despite the fact that the real Asia used racially offensive language, in her real books, pretty much whenever she felt like.)  The author quotes Shakespeare almost every page.  Here is a particularly bad excerpt:

Today is the anniversary of John Wilkes Booth's death, so it's kind of fitting that a particular book I ordered from the library came in today.  It is called Famous Assassinations of History: From Philip of Macedon, 336 B.C., to Alexander of Servia, A.D. 1903, by Francis Johnson.  Johnson wrote the book in the same year as the last entry (1903), and it is completely delightful!  Moreover, I thought Johnson's description of Philip's assassination sounded oddly familiar...

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
A HORATIAN ODE.

Not as when some great Captain falls
In battle, where his country calls,
Beyond the struggling lines
That push his dread designs

To doom, by some stray ball struck dead :
Or, in the last charge, at the head
Of his determined men,
Who must be victors then.

Nor as when sink the civic great,
The safer pillars of the State,
Whose calm, mature, wise words
Suppress the need of swords.

With no such tears as e'er were shed
Above the noblest of our dead
Do we to-day deplore
The Man that is no more.

( Here's the rest of the poem )

This poem was published in 1871 by Richard Henry Stoddard. He was a poet who lived (I think) in New York, and for a few years during the early 1860s he was very good friends with Edwin and Mary Devlin Booth. I think this is a pretty terrible poem--like a lot of Stoddard's work, it is simply too long! but the way he describes Lincoln, and the funeral train--it's so interesting, which pieces of propaganda he has swallowed.

And, since I really am a fan of Stoddard, even though he is sometimes (see above) embarrassing, here is some good news! The Michigan Historical Reprint Series has published a shiny new copy of The Poems of Richard Henry Stoddard! This includes a huge number of poems, from collections published throughout his life, and including his splendid narrative poem, The King's Bell. Go check it out!

Happy Birthday John Surratt!

We all have our own opinions of "Mr. S--tt," but since it is his birthday I will be nice.  So here is a fond description of the man from a Very Reliable Source, his friend Louis Weichmann:


(Go buy yourselves a shirt to celebrate!)

check this out.

: D

sadly, seymour died shortly after this episode, in part, because of the fall mentioned at the start of the clip.

Suddenly today I felt more motivated than usual to actually figure out Weichmann's War Dept. friend Mr. Gleason (by which I really mean, learn more anecdotes so I can tell unflattering stories about him).  To this purpose, does anybody know where I should go to find a decent book on 19th cent. Freemasonry?  (He's listed as a member in several of their Massachussetts newsletters, I can try to dig up the actual reference if anybody's interested.)

My quick search on Amazon proves what I had already guessed--that there are a ton of books out there along the lines of "Freemasonry For Dummies!" and I would rather not have to sift through it all if I don't have to.  So if any of you have already looked into this, I would love suggestions!

i posted a review of Steers' Hartranft letterbook book on my own lj.

follow the fake lj cut to read it

i flocked it because i feel like it's kinda vitriolic (and i even tried to show restraint). if you are not on my flist, feel free to friend me (just let me know you came to the link through this group!)

: o p

A friend linked me to a great article in the New York Times, about boarding houses in the nineteenth century! 


Although the author of the article claims that "the unceasing drama of boardinghouse life — the flirtations, drunkenness, mutual irritation, backbiting, whining, eccentricity, conspiracy, chiseling and deceit — may come as a surprise," those of you who have spent any time with the Surratt family will not be surprised at all.  (P. S., Kara just found proof in the LAS that the story about Anna smacking Weichmann for wearing blue pants is true!)

recently i posted about a project i brought home involving the experimental restoration of 14 volumes of Harper's Monthly Magazine. As I have been working on the books, I've been perusing some of the contents. In June of 1881 an article appeared about Edwin Booth. This opening is the sort of film-worthy anecdote that makes the Booths so irresistible, so I thought I would share it.

: D





p.s. the article respectfully makes no mention of that other brother.

x-posted to my own journal (sorry flist!).

The Surratt Society Conference was excellent this year, Bungo and I had quite a lot of fun.  What a wonderful field!

My mother was very sweet and purchased a copy of The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence for my thesis next year.  As I was originally somewhat nervous about this volume, I thought I would review it.

It's a typed up, printed book containing all the documents from the LAS (M599, the documents assembled by Burnett before/during the trial) that aren't the Trial transcript or the newspaper articles at the end.  William C. Edwards put the impressive work into transcribing them; Edward Steers Jr. wrote the annotations.  It's a huge thing, of course, neatly printed in a heavy but attractive single volume, and sells for around $100.  The pages are a pure joy to turn -- soft and smooth and satisfying!

The real deal on the goods:

Spelling errors have been fixed, except where the document is extremely poorly written or when a name is used.  This makes it more readable, but less accurate.

It has (as can be expected in a work of this size in it's first printing) some index problems (see Atzerodt) such as the mentioned name not being on a page, or the document being on the page following.  The index is of names and places, and respects differed spellings.  This is the highlight of the printed volume -- you can flip back and forth between documents and the index with ease, looking up all those pesky characters.

I'm very grateful for this book, as Edwards did a great job judging every word and deciphering (figuratively!) sentences we have been puzzling over for a long time.  However, probably due to the sheer number of documents, there are some mistakes and some licenses taken.  The one letter that we analyzed thoroughly had a few of mistakes, some in spots key to the meaning, so if you are doing an indepth study of a document, I still recommend you go back to the original.  I do not agree with all of the choices made, including on the transcription of some abbreviations.  This book will same me many, many hours.

The annotations are quite brief but on almost every page  They usually relate who a person is if their name is spelled slightly differently, or explain about a location mentioned.  There is little speculation, indepth anlalysis, or reference to scholarship, but it's helpful nonetheless.

I got my copy signed by the two authors.  It was my first time meeting Ed Steers, and I was, of course, somewhat curious.  "I know everything there is to know about the Lincoln assassination," he said, and I laughed accordingly, thinking he was joking.  He continued, to my horror quite serious, "but I'm interested to see what happens now that people have access to the original sources."  Or that was approximately what he said, immediately after I had thanked him for publishing this book, since it would save me countless hours on the microfilm machine (which I love, but still).  Perhaps he had not heard why I was so interested in this book, but I would like to note that should someone pick up pretty much any of the scholarship to come out of the field, they will find it has been based on...original sources. 

This is a fantastic book, a valuable if expensive investment, and I have been having a jolly good time flipping through it, sometimes just for the feel.  But I am a dork.  I retract most of my previous concerns over it -- the reel and frame number are included for every source!!  Thanks, Edwards & Steers.

The Conference is over, I learned so much!  Also, I finally got a chance to look at some of the stuff faynudibranch got last year from the James O. Hall papers.  There is some incredibly helpful stuff, but my favorite document has got to be an 1880s letter from Louis Weichmann to a reporter.  The letter is written on Treasury Department stationary, in a Treasury Department envelope (I think this is where Weichmann was working at the time).  The upper corner of the envelope looks like this (but with fancier type):

Treasury Department
Custom House, Philadelphia, Collector's Office
OFFICIAL!
Any person using this envelope without payment of
postage on private matters will be subject to
fine of Three Hundred Dollars!

Or, I think it says that--part of the message was obscured by the stamp that Weichmann very responsibly applied.  Has anybody come across this kind of envelope before?  (I imagine they must be pretty common!)  Do you know what it actually says under the stamp?

Inside this spectacular envelope, Weichmann is spinning another one of his silly elaborations to the historical record--in this one, John Wilkes Booth gets mad over a statue of Lincoln.  This fact has never been made public although I have -------- it to friends, says Weichmann, It was not brought out or crossexamined at the conspiracy trial and probably did not occur to my mind then.

Yeah, right.  He's such a liar, but why? Did he figure, since he was lying about everything else anyway, that he might as well completely turn his life into a foreshadow-filled novel?

I'm just missing one word out of this literary gem--can any of you figure out Weichmann's chicken scratch?

( Weichmann said WHAT? (A new game!) )

I know most of you live in inconvenient places for this, but faynudibranch and I will be attending the 2009 Surratt Society Conference this month (March)!  There will be a lot of smart people speaking about exciting topics like the American Bastille and Mary Lincoln and Catholics!  If this sounds exciting to you and you don't already know about it, check out the Surratt Society webpage to learn more.  Early registration (cheaper) closes 10 March, so if you want to go move quickly!  The conference itself is going to be held Saturday, 21 March.

And, while I'm advertising for them anyway, you should all definitely sign up for Surratt Society memberships!  It costs only $7 for the whole year and they will send you a yellow newsletter every month full of good articles.  I forgot to renew this year and missed about three of them, I regret it so much.

For those of you who will be in New York this summer, check out this play!  I'm certainly going to!

Generations collide as two of the greatest Shakespearean actors of all time take on their most challenging roles as father and son. Junius Booth, a gifted but tortured actor of the 19th century acclaimed throughout America for his vigorous performances of Shakespeare, discovers that his young son Edwin shares his passion for acting. Worried that Edwin will also inherit the emotional struggles that plague him, Junius takes Edwin under his wing to guide his career. This newly revised version of Austin Pendleton's family drama tracks the relationship between the father and son as they grapple with each other's passions and fears.

by Austin Pendleton
directed by Eric Parness

http://www.ticketcentral.com/showdetails2.asp?showid=1961

I was out of school today, and I spent most of my time on Flickr. (I know, how productive of me.)

Two of my more, um... Interesting finds: Here and here.

My family and I are moving last week, and my wife and I went scorched-earth through the literally thousands of VHS tapes that were just as literally gathering dust.  I am afraid we may have accidentally pitched a VHS tape of the Sandburg's Lincoln miniseries that ran on NBC in the 1970s.  It starred Hal Holbrook as Lincoln and Sada Thompson as Mary Todd Lincoln.

On the same cassette, more importantly, I had They've Killed President Lincoln, narrated by Richard Basehart.  None of these have been released on DVDs.

Does anyone on this group have these?  If so, please contact me privately.  I will provide you with blank media (VHS tape, DVD) to make a copy for me.  I pledge that I will not use them commercially--they will just be for my own personal viewing.

that we made up.  Wait, no, it's just what historians do.

FIND ADAM BADEAU!  Here's how to play:

Step 1:
( Study these images carefully )

Step 2:
( Find Adam Badeau! )

And there you have it!  Where's Adam Badeau? is a game not for the faint of heart.

New member, and new to the whole knowledge of the conspiracy/Booth's escape/etc. (Don't shoot me, please!)

I came upon it in a really unspectacular way: I was casually watching The History Channel sometime last week, and The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth came on. Prior to this show, all I knew about John Wilkes Booth was that he shot Lincoln on April 14th, 1865. The only thing Seward ever did was purchase Alaska.

I wish I had known about it before, and I really don't see why I didn't. Shouldn't something that major (and interesting) be mentioned in my AP US history class last year, at least...?

Since watching the show, I've read Manhunt (Pretty much the only book available about it at my library... Yay little towns!), researched a lot online, and put countless books on my to-read list that I hope to purchase sometime.

Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you all!

Happy 200th birthday Abraham Lincoln!  All year long!  February 12th, 1809, to be more precise.  But who bothers with that?

http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/

Check out the events nearest you!  Prepare for all the men dressed up as Lincoln!  The new penny with stiff depictions of scenes from his life!  I love it!

From the helpful Surratt Society website, Prisoner of Shark Island screening and Hartranft in the D.C. area.