Dr. Dan J. Watermeier, a theatrical director and professor, has spent decades researching his biography of Edwin Booth, and it has finally been published by the University of Missouri Press. Entitled American Tragedian: The Life of Edwin Booth, it focuses principally on Booth's stage career, but is balanced with details about his personal life.
Read Prince...many long years ago, and it will always be a classic to me. I have not read Mr. Bloom's book, but we had him as a speaker at the Surratt conference several years ago, and he was very good. Terry Alford has been keeping me up to date on Dr. Watermeier's project, and it seems that this one could be the winner.
I just brought home a copy of Dr. Watermeier's book this evening and will start reading it tomorrow. Can't wait!
FYI, Dr. Watermeier cites Dave Taylor's Boothie Blog as a reference in the first paragraph of the first page of "American Tragedian". Way to go, Scholar Dave!
All these Booth lines are now supposed to be extinct. But I constantly come across new and old listings of folks claiming they are a cousin of Booth. But when you look at their genealogy, they almost never pan out. Many more want to be related to John Wilkes Booth, than to Lincoln. While in the case of Lincoln, many more folks claimed to be close friends and neighbors of Abraham Lincoln, than to the Booths.
Ran across this tidbit that you might find interesting.
In one of history’s eeriest coincidences, just as Edwin’s funeral service began, three floors of Ford’s Theatre collapsed into the basement killing twenty-two people.
Could this have been Edwin's ghost trying to avenge what his brother did to the family name?
It is indeed eerie, Jerry.
Dave Taylor wrote a detailed account of this tragedy
here.
I have read that as Edwin lay dying, a severe thunderstorm blew up and the gas lighting flicked as if going to go off. Edwina cried "Please don't let father die in the dark!" The lights came back on - eerie indeed....
(02-03-2017 08:29 AM)BettyO Wrote: [ -> ]I have read that as Edwin lay dying, a severe thunderstorm blew up and the gas lighting flicked as if going to go off. Edwina cried "Please don't let father die in the dark!" The lights came back on - eerie indeed....
I read that same account, Betty, and it sent a bit of a shiver down my back.