Sibling Rivalry takes Center Stage in Book about Lincoln Assassin

Having read, seemingly not too long ago, Bloody Crimes: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Chase for Jefferson Davis by James Swanson, I have to admit I was a little bit reluctant to pick up another book with significant focus on John Wilkes Booth, who has to be the most well-known of the American Presidential assassins. While I'm fascinated with the Lincoln Presidency, there's something unseemly to me about spending too much time paying attention to the man who took his life.

But there was something compelling about the cover of My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy by Nora Titone that led me to pick it up. Almost anyone with a passing history knows that Lincoln's assassin was an actor whose sympathies lied with the Confederate cause. What many may not realize is that Booth came from a long line of distinguished actors, of which his brother Edwin was his greatest rival. This hook drew me into yet another book where John Wilkes takes center stage.

Titone's narrative doesn't focus on the assassination; she attempts to spell out John Wilkes Booth's motives, but the story is more about about the legacy of renowned actor Junius Brutus Booth, whose offspring dominated the American stage in the mid-19th Century. John Wilkes is portrayed as being in the shadow of his brother Edwin, whose talent led him to dominate the stage throughout the country. That domination led Edwin to parse out parts of the country which his siblings could ply their trade. John Wilkes, readers won't be surprised to find out, spent considerable time in the South.

Rather than focus on a tried and true historical narrative, Titone's decision to frame the story of the eventual assassin through the frame of sibling rivalry is clever. Along the way, readers learn considerable about theatre in the mid-1800s, and about the other actors and actresses whose paths cross the famous Booth siblings. The book is littered with fascinating figures, patrons of the arts and performers. The role of Our American Cousin producer Laura Keene - the comedy that Lincoln attended that April night at Ford's Theatre - is particularly interesting.

If you're looking for a slightly different approach to the Lincoln assassination, you might find this a good read. The Booth family is a compelling bunch, making this more than one more familiar account of the assassin's story.

-Michael