Fates and Traitors: A Novel of John Wilkes Booth is a work of fiction inspired by history. Numerous events and people that appear in the historical record have been omitted from this book simply because it would have been impossible to include them all.
I offer my sincere thanks to Maria Massie, Maya Ziv, and Denise Roy for their contributions to Fates and Traitors and their ongoing support of my work. I’m grateful for the generous assistance of my first readers, Marty Chiaverini, Geraldine Neidenbach, and Heather Neidenbach, whose insightful comments and questions always prove invaluable. I also thank Nic Neidenbach, Marlene and Len Chiaverini, and other friends and family for their support and encouragement.
I am indebted to the Wisconsin Historical Society and their librarians and staff for maintaining the excellent archives on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison that I rely upon for my research. The most significant sources for this book were:
Terry Alford, Fortune’s Fool: The Life of John Wilkes Booth (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
Stephen M. Archer, Junius Brutus Booth: Theatrical Prometheus (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992).
Arthur W. Bloom, Edwin Booth: A Biography and Performance History (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2013).
John Wilkes Booth, “Right or Wrong, God Judge Me”: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth, ed. John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1997).
Asia Booth Clarke, Booth Memorials: Passages, Incidents and Anecdotes in the Life of Junius Brutus Booth (the Elder) by His Daughter (New York: Henry L. Hinton, 1870).
———. The Elder and the Younger Booth (Boston: J. R. Osgood, 1882).
———. John Wilkes Booth: A Sister’s Memoir, ed. Terry Alford (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996).
———. Personal Recollections of the Elder Booth (London: privately published, 1902).
———. The Unlocked Book: A Memoir of John Wilkes Booth (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1938).
Ernest B. Furgurson, Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War (New York: Knopf, 2004).
Edwina Booth Grossman, Edwin Booth: Recollections by His Daughter, Edwina Booth Grossman, and Letters to Her and to His Friends (New York: The Century Company, 1894).
Michael W. Kauffman, American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies (New York: Random House, 2004).
Kate Clifford Larson, The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln (New York: Basic Books, 2008).
Virginia Lomax, The Old Capitol and Its Inmates: By a Lady, Who Enjoyed the Hospitalities of the Government for a “Season” (New York: E. J. Hale & Son, 1867).
Arthur F. Loux, John Wilkes Booth: Day by Day (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2014).
Richmond Morcom, “They All Loved Lucy,” American Heritage 21, no. 6, October 1970.
Richard H. Sewell, John P. Hale and the Politics of Abolition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965).
Gene Smith, American Gothic: The Story of America’s Legendary Theatrical Family—Junius, Edwin, and John Wilkes Booth (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992).
Elizabeth Steger Trindal, Mary Surratt: An American Tragedy (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, Inc., 1996).
Nora Titone, My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry That Led to the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Free Press, 2010).
Louis J. Weichmann, A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Conspiracy of 1865, ed. Floyd E. Risvold (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975).
I also consulted several excellent online resources while researching and writing Fates and Traitors, including the archives of digitized historic newspapers at the Library of Congress (http://chroniclingamerica.loc .gov) and GenealogyBank.com; Dave Taylor’s excellent blog, BoothieBarn: Discovering the Conspiracy (http://boothiebarn.com); and websites for the Surratt House Museum (http://www.surrattmuseum.org), the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site (http://www.nps.gov/foth/index.htm), and the Junius B. Booth Society (http://juniusbrutusbooth.org and https://www.facebook.com/SpiritsofTudorHall).
Most of all, I thank my husband, Martin Chiaverini, and our sons, Nicholas and Michael, for their enduring love and tireless support. I couldn’t have written this book without you, and I love you beyond measure.