This book would not have been possible were it not for the many librarians and curators who located materials for me, often with only scant information. I would like to express my special thanks to the librarians at Wayne State University’s Interlibrary Loan Department for their numerous efforts providing me with books and journal articles from other libraries. Special thanks to Abbie Weinberg, research and outreach specialist at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., who never tired of locating and sending me copies of my many requests. Leah Lefkowtiz at Harvard University’s Houghton Library facilitated my research at the Houghton as did the other librarians at the Houghton. Raymond Wemmlinger, librarian and curator of the Hampden-Booth Theatre Library in New York City, provided access to Henrietta Irving’s three-page autobiography and letter she wrote and the Booth family letters. Colleen Walter Puterbaugh, research librarian at the Surratt House Museum’s James O. Hall Research Center in Clinton, Maryland—a must for any research involving the Booths—was another who tirelessly located materials for me and who kept the library open long past the time she ordinarily would have left to allow me to copy documents. Janet Bloom at the Clements Library at the University of Michigan located relevant items in its inventory. Thanks also to the Surratt Society’s Laurie Verge and Joan Chaconas, who opened the library for me when it was normally closed. Similar thanks to Maryanna Skowronski, research director at the Historical Society of Harford County in Bel Air Maryland (home of the Booth family), who allowed me to visit the library when it was normally closed and provided access to its collection of Booth-related materials. Malia Ebel, reference librarian/archivist at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord, allowed me access to Lucy Hale’s correspondence and her diaries. Dominique Daniel, coordinator of archives and special collections, and Shirley Paquette at the Oakland University Kresge Library in Rochester, Michigan, made the Fred L. Black papers and Booth file clippings available. Alexandra Griffiths at the New York Public Library’s Interlibrary and Document Services provided copies of rare newspaper clippings. Janet Bloom, librarian at the University of Michigan’s Clements Library, located references to Maggie Mitchell and James Mansfield (the spiritualist Edwin Booth consulted after his wife Mary Devlin died). Special thanks also to Cynthia Van Ness, director of the Buffalo History Museum Library and Archives, for researching possible connections for Henrietta Irving at Buffalo and to Joshua Stabler, Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State Library, for searching the library’s files for Booth-related photos. Damon Talbot of the Maryland Historical Society’s Special Collections Department kindly photocopied and sent me Asia Booth Clarke’s invaluable correspondence with Jean Anderson. Scott S. Taylor at Georgetown University’s Lauinger Library’s Special Collections had the Barbee files waiting for me as soon as I arrived as did Jane Gastineau and Emily Rapoza for the Booth collection at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Thanks to Laura Anderson for pacing off the distance from the door to box eight in the presidential box to the balustrade over which Lincoln was leaning when he was shot and for allowing me access to Ford Theater’s archives. I also thank Kelsy Adelson at the Mount Auburn Cemetery for details about Helen and Lucille Western’s burial plot and Terry Alford for details about Booth’s engagement to Maggie Mitchell.
A very special thanks to Kathryn Canavan, William L. Richter, Tom Bogar, Joan Chaconas, Dr. Thomas Lowry, and William Binzel, who critiqued various chapters, corrected my factual, textual, and footnote errors, and offered valuable improvements. Any remaining errors are entirely my own.
I also take this opportunity to thank my wife, Barbara Buckley Abel, and Roberta Russ for editing and improving very early drafts. Barbara patiently gave me the time away from family to write this book and finish it by the deadline. She has been my best friend for almost fifty years, my research assistant, my companion on journeys to the libraries we travelled to, my promoter, and my better angel.
Finally, a very special note of thanks to Alex Novak, publisher of Regnery History, for putting up with my numerous revisions, to my outstanding editor Lauren Mann for refining and keeping the text focused, and to Elizabeth Dobak for her diligence in copy-editing the book.