On this day in 1893, Edwin Booth died.

That infallible source is a master of understatement.

His achievements are often overshadowed by his relationship with his younger brother, actor John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

He was the elder brother of John Wilkes Booth, himself a successful actor who gained notoriety as the assassin of President Lincoln.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Booth

Overshadowed. Notoriety. Well, sure. I suppose you could say that.

Booth the elder was an extremely successful and good tragedian– [new word for me] an actor who specializes in tragedy. The Pocket Univ. introduction to Booth quotes “Mr. William Winter’s Life and Art of Edwin Booth… “

The salient attributes of Booth’s art were imagination, grace, intense emotion, and melancholy refinement. … But the controlling attribute,– that which imparted individual character, colour and fascination to his acting,– was the thoroughly introspective habit of a stately mind, abstracted from passion and suffused with mournful dreaminess of temperament.

I could not be a theatre critic.

The autobiographical entry on Booth consists of letters. Those to his daughter span 20 years and really enjoyable. He was a devoted father and seemed like a very nice guy. In one, to a friend in 1864, he talks about how he and his wife had planned their future, and now “the dreams of my past life– so far as my profession is concerned– are being realised.” He was 33 when that letter was written. A little more than a year later– three weeks after the assassination– he writes the friend again. His greatest concern is for his mother, wife, and sister from whom he is separated. But before thanking his friend he writes:

I wish I could see with others’ eyes; all my friends assure me that my name shall be free, and that in a little while I may be where I was and what I was; but alas! it looks dark to me.

Sixteen years later, four years before he died, another letter responded to inquiries about his brother from a Boston book publisher.

For nearly half his life he was not just a tremendous Shakespearian actor, he was the brother of a notorious assassin.

Anyway… .

Stay Well. Stay safe. Enjoy what’s left of the weekend.