Friday, 2//02
STAFF WRITER
"... the
great tragedian, whose name has become illustrious with the American people...
His praise is on every tongue, and he richly deserves it."
The Louisville, Ky., Journal, Jan. 21,1864
So said the reviewer witnessing one of the greatest actors of the
time, the scion of an acting dynasty performing Shakespeare's masterpieces
during a two-week engagement at Wood's Theater in Louisville.
With coal black hair and black eyes that flashed like jewels,
according to one actress, JohnWilkes Booth was darkly and dashingly handsome
and possessed the talent to become the country's premiere actor.
He was dubbed "The Handsomest Man in America."
So attractive was he, his sometime co-star Clara Morris recalled
Booth's hold over women with a metaphor,"... as sunflowers turn upon their
stalks to follow the beloved sun, so old and young, our faces turned smiling to
him," according to a text devoted to Booth.
But history remembers Booth as a murderer, a monster.
Surely, the killer of Abraham Lincoln was insane.
Who else but a madman would kill the man who freed slaves and
waged a war that would unite a country?
"JohnWilkes Booth wasn't an insane man," said Leslie
King, a photographer who created a visual diary of Booth's life.
"He believed Lincoln was the problem, the root of all evil in
society.
"He thought of Lincoln as a dictator."
Booth was not alone in his theories, many Southerners and even
Northerners shared his opinions of Lincoln but none would act as heinously as
Booth on that hatred.
King cautions she is not an authority on the subject of the
Lincoln assassination. but an armchair historian interested in Booth and the
band of conspirators.
Some of her photos chronicling Booth's life are on display at the
Tony
Hungerford Art
Gallery in the Fine Arts Theater on the La Plata campus of the
College of
Southern Maryland through March 3.
King will give a free talk about her work at noon Feb. 19 at the
gallery.
King took the
show's title, "Sic Semper Tyrannis," from the words Booth allegedly
roared after fatally wounding Lincoln on April 14,1865.
The state ofVirginia's motto, "Sic Semper lyrannis,"
means "Thus always to tyrants."
*****
A horse stands
in a sepia-colored field of the Prince George's County farm His
Lordship's
Kindness. The farm is the birthplace of alleged Booth conspirator Mary
Surratt. The
horse looks out from a frame, one of King's photos.
*****
In April 2000, King, who takes a camera wherever she goes, tagged
along with a friend on a Surratt Society-sponsored tour.
She was hooked not on Lincoln, of whom much is known, but on the
mysterious and dark Booth.
"So much has been done on Lincoln," King said. "I
didn't have much to add. Booth is so much darker, he was more interesting to me."
She devoured a book of Booth's writings, "Right or Wrong, God
Judge Me"and found the man intriguing.
"You grow up thinking Booth was a monster, but his writing
shows otherwise. He had his political views and he was an intelligent man, a
charismatic man. He knew a lot of people; military people and he was well
respected. His writings show reasons behind his actions, right or wrong. He
looked on Lincoln as a bully."
King found,
through her readings, that the Booth's family politics differed from those of
the son and brother that would change history.
Baltimore-bom Booth prided himself on being a Southerner; he was a
racist who witnessed abolitionist John Brown's execution and smuggled quinine
to Confederate troops. His occupation as anactor, a star, allowed him carte
blanche while traveling.
Booth's brothers, Junius Brutus Booth Jr. and Edwin Booth, both
extraordinary actors in their own right, would not talk politics with their
younger brother. If the brothers got into a political discussion it almost surely
erupted in an argument, according to the notes in "Right orWrong, God
Judge Me."
The youngest brother, Joseph Adrian Booth, was not an actor; his
sister, Rosalie Booth, was a recluse; and sister, Asia Booth Clarke, a writer.
"His family was on the other side," King said.
"They were for the North. Edwin voted for Lincoln's [second term as
president of the United States]."
Booth thought Lincoln would become a king, a thought Booth could
not bear.
The photos of Booth's life will not hang in chronological order at
the
Hungerford
Gallery.
"This is not a travelogue," King said. "This is
just my touch on the history. I'm not here to debate it. JohnWilkes Booth, to
me, is a romantic character. He is no more real to me than a fairytale."
King traveled to NewYork City, taking photos of the famous Players
Club, the club Booth's brother, Edwin, helped found. Some of Booth's speeches
were found years later in the club. She also visited Philadelphia where Booth's
sister and family biographer, Asia Booth Clarke lived. Wilkes, as most of his
family called
Booth, lived with
and visited his siblings when not on the road.
His parents were Junius Brutus Booth Sr. (an acclaimed actor) and
Mary Ann Booth, and JohnWilkes Booth was considered their favorite child. Booth
and his mother seemed to have a special bond; he would write to her almost
every Sunday while touring. Later, following their father's death, Junius
Brutus Booth Jr. wrote to Edwin fearing JohnWilkes may have inherited the
darkness, perhaps madness, the elder Booth seemed to possess.
*****
A photo of the
building now standing where Baltimore's St. Charles Theater, a
venue played
by Booth, hangs in the collection.
*****
"We can see what he saw," King said. "But time
didn't stand still. These are most of the places he touched upon, but buildings
go down and buildings go up.
There have been
big changes since [Boom's time]. The world won't stop."
So the actor, while traveling from theater to theater, performance
to performance, was plotting the kidnapping of Lincoln. Recruiting friends,
along with like-minded Southerners and sympathizers,
Booth financed
the plot on his own.
He was financially comfortable, earning a star's wages as an
actor, and investing in business (He would lose money, too, in these
investments, as later documented in the trial of the Lincoln assassination
conspirators).
There is no evidence, written or remembered, that suggests when
Booth decided to kill Lincoln. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was supposed to be
Lincoln's guest at the Ford Theater's production of "Our American
Cousin" that April night, leading some historians to believe Booth wanted
to get two birds with one shot, so to speak. Grant backed out. And Booth, a
veteran of Ford Theater, had knowledge of the building and was granted easy access
allowing him to creep behind Lincoln and unload a bullet into the president's
head.
"I think Booth was so passionate about the South he lost
sight of right and wrong," King said.
The 12-foot leap from the president's box to the stage should have
been easy for the accomplished stuntman Booth had become through his acting
career
(His body was
said to be covered in scars from mishaps during theatrical sword fights).
Jumping to the stage to make his escape Booth's spur caught in the bunting
festooning the Lincoln box leaving the assassin to land on the stage awkwardly
and break his leg.
Despite the injury he lit out on horseback for Southern Maryland
hoping to cross the Potomac River to Virginia, where he expected to be hailed a
hero by
Southerners.
Twelve days passed before authorities caught up with Booth in a
Virginia tobacco bam.
King's photo of Loyola's Retreat near Popes Creek depicts the area Booth and his accomplice, slow- witted David Herold, planned to cross the river into Virginia.
*****
During that time, both the North and his beloved South reviled
Booth's actions. He went from being an adored actor tobeing one of the most
hated men in all of history.
"To put in perspective, from what I've read, this would have been
as if someone like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt were to do something like
this," King said. "It was that shocking."
And Booth was shocked at the lack of support he received.
While on the run he scrawled in a pocket diary, "I am here in
despair. And why? For doing what Brutus was honored for, what made Tell a hero.
And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew am looked upon
as a common cutthroat."
Booth was eventually killed, only about 12 miles from the
Rappahanock
River. He was
shot through the neck as the barn burned around him. Soldiers dragged him out
of the fire and the body was taken to Washington for positive identification.
The collection of photos, 19 out of the 50 King has developed, are
in a sepiatone giving them an old-fashioned, aged quality.
When preparing for the show, King asked the opinion of friends and
other artists, some reactions were surprising.
"Some of my more conservative friends stepped back and could
understand Booth's arguments but didn't agree with his actions" she said.
"It was the people I consider more open-minded that said this was
supporting terrorism. People have not let this go. And I think it is because it
is in our own back yards, we are tripping over it and bumping into it even
now."
*****
King visited and photographed the site of Milton Academy in Cockeysville. Booth went to school at Milton before leaving school at 15. The photo is part of the show.
*****
Born in La Plata
to culturally minded parents, King, who used to go by the professional name Leslie
Scher Brown, graduated from Shepherd College in West Virginia. She is now a
freelance photographer and works at the Calvert Marine
Museum.
Hooked on creating photographic diaries depicting the lives of
historical figures, King is branching out into following the lives of the
conspirators implicating in Lincoln's assassination.
"We have a fabulous cultural history in Southern
Maryland," she said. "It is this history that make us what we are now."
Despite the sullying the family name and following a blacklisting
effort, the
Booth family
rebuilt their lives and resurrected careers.
Edwin went on to be successful operating the Player's Club in
NewYork City Junius Brutus Booth Jr. rose above his family's name to be called
the best
Shakespearean actor
of the time, earning critical and public acclaim.