ITHANK THE PIONEERS, GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND (1841 TO 1914), Osborn H. Oldroyd (1842 to 1930), and James O. Hall, who, in his nineties, remains an inspiration. All other scholars of the Lincoln assassination must stand on their shoulders. Townsend, Oldroyd, and Hall followed Booth’s path, asked the questions, collected the documents, and pursued the unknown. The rest of us walk in their footsteps, and those tracks span several generations leading in an unbroken line back to the night when Abraham Lincoln was shot. I owe special thanks to Mr. Hall for a memorable day at his home, when he shared some of the knowledge that he has devoted a lifetime to acquiring.
With fond memories, I thank the late Michael Maione, National Park Service historian at Ford’s Theatre, who, as far as I know, never appeared anywhere out of uniform, for memorable conversations and good counsel. Mike was the model of a public historian, and those who saw him in action at Ford’s, pacing in front of the stage, delivering his famous lecture on the assassination in a bellowing voice, saw him at his best. Once, I cautioned Mike that his enthusiasm was frightening the schoolchildren who flocked in droves to Ford’s every summer. “Yes,” he said, beaming, “and they will remember me!” They certainly did. And Michael, so shall we. It was “altogether fitting and proper,” to borrow Lincoln’s phrase from his remarks honoring the dead at Gettysburg, that Mike’s memorial service was held at the place he loved—Ford’s Theatre.
I thank Library of Congress specialist Clark Evans for quiet days in the rare-book room at the Jefferson Building, when he brought out one delightful Lincoln treasure after another. I also thank John R. Sellers, Historical Specialist at the Library of Congress manuscripts division, for assassination tips, helpful publishing advice, and making available some of the Lincoln treasures from his domain. At the National Archives, Michael Musick was an indispensable guide to the complicated records of the Lincoln assassination.
Two good friends in the Lincoln community, Edward Steers Jr., the premiere contemporary historian of the assassination, and Michael F. Bishop, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, graciously read and improved the manuscript. Michael Burlingame, Lincoln scholar, editor, and author nonpareil, is unfailingly eager to share his research with colleagues, and he generously answered my questions. At the University of Chicago, David Bevington offered insights into Booth’s use of Shakespeare.
Andrea E. Mays, an astute critic of historical nonfiction, read and commented on the manuscript from her unique perspective. She reviewed several incarnations of the book and saved me from making a number of embarrassing errors and omissions.
I also thank Lisa Bertagnoli, journalist, linguist, and student of Southern culture, for reading the manuscript, offering many valuable comments, and for her other contributions.
Mara Mills suggested that I do something useful with the Lincoln library that’s been curing on my shelves for years—like write a book.
James Nash, a careful reader of the literature of the war of the rebellion, brought important issues to my attention. Thanks also to James for a macabre summer night in downtown Washington, D.C., when we went to Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse to watch, on the 140th anniversary of her hanging, a play about her trial and execution.
I am indebted to Joan Chaconas and Laurie Verge for encouragement, generosity, and friendship. Their research and writing, and their role in preserving Mary Surratt’s country house, have materially advanced the scholarship of the Lincoln assassination. Sandra Walia at the Surratt Society’s James O. Hall Research Library unlocked the treasure trove of files held there. I was aghast when, years ago, I learned of a group called the Surratt Society. I had assumed, incorrectly, that it was a club of amateur assassination apologists. On the contrary, its staff and members are passionate scholars in pursuit of objective history.
At William H. Seward’s magnificent home in Auburn, New York, executive director Peter Wisbey provided haunting photographs and valuable information about Fanny and her father.
David Lovett, an extraordinary historian and bibliographer of the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations, provided virtually unobtainable books and pamphlets that were essential to my research.
Karen Needles of Documents on Wheels uncovered the hitherto unpublished reward check issued to Booth’s killer, Boston Corbett. Karen is an indefatigable researcher who has made numerous contributions to the Lincoln field by ferreting out many exciting and little-known documents at the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and elsewhere.
I thank my friends at the Heritage Foundation, Edwin Meese III, Todd Gaziano, and Paul Rosenzweig, for giving me a home during much of the time I wrote the book. And thanks also to Molly Stark for helping with the manuscript and for solving never-ending computer mysteries.
Thanks to Carol Cohen and Elizabeth Kreul-Starr for typing drafts of the manuscript.
Theodore L. Jones and George A. Didden III handed me the keys to a beautiful but haunted nineteenth-century townhouse big enough to hold a few thousand books, documents, and Civil War newspapers.
I must thank Harold Holzer, vice president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and co-chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, for expert insights and his hospitality in New York City, and Frank Williams, Chief Justice of Rhode Island and also a member of the Bicentennial Commission, for sharing his great knowledge and wonderful Lincoln library.
Valuable advice on how to think about and tell this story came from Douglas H. Ginsburg, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and from Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Thanks also to the friends who have indulged me by joining my annual nighttime tours of downtown Washington on the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination.
Special thanks to a Southern friend who, after insisting on anonymity, disclosed her family’s secret custom: ever since April 15, 1866—the first anniversary of the murder—they have held their annual cotillion on that day to celebrate the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and to honor their Brutus. Their ritual provided a remarkable immediacy about how some Southerners reacted to the events of April 1865—and how some still remember them.
Henry Ferris is a patient and discerning editor who improved the manuscript in countless ways with a fine dramatic sensibility and an unerring instinct for suggesting key scenes that advanced the narrative. I am convinced that the fact he is a Booth descendant influenced the course of this book.
I also thank Michael Morrison at HarperCollins and Lisa Gallagher at William Morrow for their strong support of the book and the personal interest they took in me.
Richard Abate, my literary agent at International Creative Management, gave me his enthusiasm, insights, and friendship. Richard read several drafts of the manuscript, made himself an expert on the subject, and even came down to Washington to explore the assassination sites with me. He made this a better book. Thanks also to my other representatives at ICM, Ron Bernstein and Kate Lee.
My own hunt for John Wilkes Booth began when my grandmother, Elizabeth, a veteran of Chicago’s legendary and now extinct tabloid newspaper scene, gave a ten-year-old boy the unusual gift of a framed engraving of Booth’s Deringer pistol, along with an April 15, 1865, Chicago Tribune clipping, thus triggering the obsession that led to this book. This is in memory of her.
My sister Denise’s animated spirit and taste for bizarre historical tales encouraged me from the start. From an early age, she aided and abetted my literary pursuits.
Finally, I thank my parents, Dianne and Lennart Swanson. Without their love and generous support over many years, I never could have written Manhunt, or anything else.
James L. Swanson
Washington, D.C.
October 10, 2005