Booth's Daughter
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The niece of Lincoln’s assassin comes to terms with her family’s genius and tragic history. In March 1880 at age eighteen, Edwina is experiencing many new things. For the first time she sees her actor father, Edwin Booth, in King Lear, a play he had considered “too harsh for a young lady.” For the first time she finds herself squarely facing the burden carried by her family name for more than a decade: the assassination of President Lincoln by her uncle John Wilkes Booth. And for the first time she is in love, with Downing Vaux, an artist whose father, like Edwina’s, is famous. Edwina leaves Downing behind when her father insists that she accompany him on a year-long theatrical tour abroad. Downing is loyal, however, and when she returns to New York, they become engaged. But when the assassination of President Garfield thrusts the Booth family back into the limelight, Edwina finds that she must travel abroad again with her father, and Downing’s devotion is tested. Forced to reexamine her life, Edwina faces a difficult choice between duty and the pursuit of happiness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wemmlinger's first novel, set in the 1880s, explores the life of Edwin Booth, a famous actor and older brother to John Wilkes Booth, as seen through the eyes of his daughter. Edwina Booth was only three when Lincoln's assassination occurred ("what Papa and I referred to as 'The Subject' "), yet her close relation to the Presidential assassin often resurfaces and causes her great distress. (The assassination of President Garfield, for instance, causes a resurgence of interest in Lincoln's murder.) Edwina is subject to prying questions about her infamous uncle and must also negotiate delicate social situations (at one of her father's performances, she is seated across from former President Grant, who was to have occupied the seat in which Lincoln was shot). At 18, Edwina aspires to marry her best friend's brother, Downing Vaux, and to devote herself to his career. When her father decides to act on the European stage, the couple must endure months of separation. Downing suffers a nervous breakdown and their engagement is broken off, leaving Edwina lonely and directionless. Fortunately, she meets Ignatius Grossmann, a kind man whose friendship helps submissive Edwina see her father in a new light, namely as a manipulative, domineering man who owes much of his fame to his brother's notoriety. Edwina ultimately finds the strength to stand up to her father and begin to live life on her own terms. Fans of Ann Rinaldi will be drawn to Wemmlinger's impeccably researched and compelling debut. Ages 12-up.
