![[LINCOLN ASSASSINATION]. BOOTH, John Wilkes (1838-1865). Autograph letter signed ("J. Wilkes Booth" with flourish) to Joseph H. Simonds, Cincinnati, 23 November [1861]. 3 pages, 8vo, with original autograph envelope, docketed by recipient. FINE.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01534_0335_000(102122).jpg?w=1)
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[LINCOLN ASSASSINATION]. BOOTH, John Wilkes (1838-1865). Autograph letter signed ("J. Wilkes Booth" with flourish) to Joseph H. Simonds, Cincinnati, 23 November [1861]. 3 pages, 8vo, with original autograph envelope, docketed by recipient. FINE.
BOOTH ON TOUR DURING THE FIRST WINTER OF THE WAR
THE FUTURE ASSASSIN SWAPS THEATRICAL GOSSIP WITH A BUSINESS PARTNER. A long, chatty letter written from a hotel lobby while on tour. Booth is by turns playful, gossipy and testy. He begins by apologizing for "this long delay in answering your letters; if you knew better you would not wonder at it, as I avail myself of any excuse to get rid of writing, no matter how I may long to hear from the person to whom I have to write. And I confess I should like to hear from you every day....My second week in Buffalo was so, so. I played 17 nights in Detroit to a good Bus[iness]. After here Monday night, 25th, they count high on me but I am doubtful as to my success. Maggie Mitchel is playing a good engagement here" -- the text then gets a bit jumbled and Booth apologizes: "My dear Joe excuse this as I am standing in the office with about a hundred people about me blowing at a fearful rate. I am not fixed yet, so I cannot go to my room. Yours of the 16th also reached me, in Detroit. It seems that Forrest is always in trouble. I am sorry his bus. is not better, for it is rough to see such trash (as Barney Williams practices on the stage), get the best of the legitimate, but sich is life."
Famous American actor Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) had been plagued by scandals going back to 1849, when he helped set off a deadly riot between his fans and those of his English rival William C. Macready outside the Astor Place Opera House in New York. Then in the 1850s a messy divorce dragged salacious details of his sex life through open court, and into the columns of a delighted penny press. He was trying a comeback in 1860-61. Maggie Mitchell (1832-1918) was a young sensation on the American stage and one of Lincoln's favorite actresses. Barney Williams (1823-1876) was a minor Irish comic actor who periodically toured the U.S. Booth closes by saying "give my kindest regards to the Bugbe's. Has Mr. B. gone to Cal. yet?...I will write to you more intelligibly the next time..."
He played the Metropolitan Theatre in Buffalo between 28 October and 9 November, performing in Hamlet, Othello, Richard III, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Then came a week in Detroit and a 10-day engagement in Cincinnati that began on 25 November. If the audiences were "so, so" the critics were not. The Cincinnati Commercial declared that "Mr. Booth has caught some of the fire that animated his great father." But as his theatrical income declined throughout the war, Booth pinned his hopes on ventures like the Pennsylvania oil fields in which he and Simonds invested, but these brought scant returns. By 1865, Simonds was loaning Booth money to keep the actor alive. A $500 bequest went (unbeknownst to Simonds) towards buying guns and supplies for the abortive plot to kidnap Lincoln in March. Published in Rhodehamel and Taper, 74-75.
BOOTH ON TOUR DURING THE FIRST WINTER OF THE WAR
THE FUTURE ASSASSIN SWAPS THEATRICAL GOSSIP WITH A BUSINESS PARTNER. A long, chatty letter written from a hotel lobby while on tour. Booth is by turns playful, gossipy and testy. He begins by apologizing for "this long delay in answering your letters; if you knew better you would not wonder at it, as I avail myself of any excuse to get rid of writing, no matter how I may long to hear from the person to whom I have to write. And I confess I should like to hear from you every day....My second week in Buffalo was so, so. I played 17 nights in Detroit to a good Bus[iness]. After here Monday night, 25th, they count high on me but I am doubtful as to my success. Maggie Mitchel is playing a good engagement here" -- the text then gets a bit jumbled and Booth apologizes: "My dear Joe excuse this as I am standing in the office with about a hundred people about me blowing at a fearful rate. I am not fixed yet, so I cannot go to my room. Yours of the 16th also reached me, in Detroit. It seems that Forrest is always in trouble. I am sorry his bus. is not better, for it is rough to see such trash (as Barney Williams practices on the stage), get the best of the legitimate, but sich is life."
Famous American actor Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) had been plagued by scandals going back to 1849, when he helped set off a deadly riot between his fans and those of his English rival William C. Macready outside the Astor Place Opera House in New York. Then in the 1850s a messy divorce dragged salacious details of his sex life through open court, and into the columns of a delighted penny press. He was trying a comeback in 1860-61. Maggie Mitchell (1832-1918) was a young sensation on the American stage and one of Lincoln's favorite actresses. Barney Williams (1823-1876) was a minor Irish comic actor who periodically toured the U.S. Booth closes by saying "give my kindest regards to the Bugbe's. Has Mr. B. gone to Cal. yet?...I will write to you more intelligibly the next time..."
He played the Metropolitan Theatre in Buffalo between 28 October and 9 November, performing in Hamlet, Othello, Richard III, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Then came a week in Detroit and a 10-day engagement in Cincinnati that began on 25 November. If the audiences were "so, so" the critics were not. The Cincinnati Commercial declared that "Mr. Booth has caught some of the fire that animated his great father." But as his theatrical income declined throughout the war, Booth pinned his hopes on ventures like the Pennsylvania oil fields in which he and Simonds invested, but these brought scant returns. By 1865, Simonds was loaning Booth money to keep the actor alive. A $500 bequest went (unbeknownst to Simonds) towards buying guns and supplies for the abortive plot to kidnap Lincoln in March. Published in Rhodehamel and Taper, 74-75.