My Thoughts Be Bloody

The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth

By: Nora Titone, Doris Kearns Goodwin - introduction/notes

Narrated by: John B. Lloyd

Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

My Thoughts Be Bloody, a sweeping family saga, revives an extraordinary figure whose name has been missing, until now, from the story of President Lincoln's death. Edwin Booth, John Wilkes's older brother by four years, was in his day the biggest star of the American stage. He won his celebrity at the precocious age of 19, before the Civil War began, when John Wilkes was a schoolboy. Without an account of Edwin Booth, author Nora Titone argues, the real story of Lincoln's assassin has never been told. Using an array of private letters, diaries, and reminiscences of the Booth family, Titone has uncovered a hidden history that reveals the reasons why John Wilkes Booth became this country's most notorious assassin.

The details of the conspiracy to kill Lincoln have been well documented elsewhere. My Thoughts Be Bloody tells a new story, one that explains for the first time why Lincoln's assassin decided to conspire against the president in the first place, and sets that decision in the context of a bitterly divided family—and nation. By the end of this riveting journey, listeners will see Abraham Lincoln's death less as the result of the war between the North and South and more as the climax of a dark struggle between two brothers who never wore the uniform of soldiers, except on stage.

©2010 Nora Titone (P)2010 Simon and Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

"Titone's account paints a colorful panorama of 19th-century theatrical life, with its endless drunken touring through frontier backwaters and showbiz pratfalls. Neither deep nor tragic, her John Wilkes is oddly convincing: the first of the grandiose hollow men in America's cast of assassins." ( Publishers Weekly)

Utterly engrossing

The setting and context of this well written account is as gripping as the story itself - first rate

entertaining

this was an engaging and informative book, I was sorry when it ended as I would have liked to know more about Edwin's later life that was not completely covered in the beginning of the book. but it was quite enjoyable.

Gripping psychological drama.

The author's wonderfully descriptive language and the sweeping epic quality of this book make it a perfect audio read. You'll really feel transported back to the era. Not just the Civil War, but steamboats, the Gold Rush, a time when Baltimore was the 3rd largest city in America, and much more.

And then there's the adultery, alcoholism, an immigration story, sibling rivalry... so much interesting information and drama! I don't read a lot of history -- tending to view it as a little dry -- but this story really is smart and gripping. Hard to turn off! The fascinating details of the lives of the Booth family of actors read like a Shakespearean tragedy themselves. The title of the book comes from a line in Hamlet, and this story will be fascinating to anyone who's interested in the history of theater, too. It is so much richer than a mere assassination tale.


Narrator is also great. You can tell when he's quoting things by the way he changes his inflection, which I appreciate since the author clearly did an enormous amount of research and includes a lot of direct quotes. Pace, tone, etc. are all good. No annoying verbal habits to spoil the tale, and I don't get tired of his voice. And at 19+ hours, it's a great deal. Highly recommended.

Excellent in all aspects!!

If you love history, then you will absolutely LOVE this book!! While it is about John Wilkes Booth, I was amazed by what little I knew about his famous family.. I could not stop listening.. The Booths' have such a varied and great historical past.. Needless-to-say, I have nothing but praise for this book..

History comes alive

This was a very good overview of the relationship between the Booth family members, not just the 2 brothers mentioned in the title. I knew very little about the family's history prior to listening to this title and find their stories fascinating. I had no idea exactly how famous the family was for things outside of the assassination of the President and enjoyed the tales of the family's successes and failures, as well as their dysfunctional interactions between all of its members.

My Thoughts Be Spellbound

The author has written the definitive work and by far the most readable of the Booth assassination sagas in print. The narration is crisp and superb, making this much more of a guilty pleasure than even American Brutus, The Lincoln Conspiracy, or Manhunt. My heart bleeds for not only the Lincoln family, but the Booths themselves, particularly Edwin Booth, who must have borne the greatest shame and burden of any individual involved. It is an even greater crime that his younger brother eclipsed him in death and is still thought of as the more talented of the two. If more widely read, this book would dispel that myth and give Edwin his due place in history as the greatest American actor of the late Nineteenth Century. John Wilkes Booth be damned.

must read

one of the best Lincoln era books I have ever read. The tragic lives of the Booths juxtaposed with the world class Shakespearean acting abilities of Edwin Booth and his father is poignant

Thumbs up!

Detailed, interesting account of Booth family relationships, successes, and tragedies. Amazing history! Definitely worth the time.

An interesting history

it was an enjoyable listen. Parts were a bit slow or the information thin but the research was well done. The reader wasn't seamless. It was clear, many times, where breaks happened by the timber of his voice and the rapidity of his words. I found it more amusing than distracting.

Highly Recommended with Historical Detail Far Beyond the Story of One Family

This is one of the best Audible books I have ever listened to. It is well researched and written with excellence. The narration was also superb. The subject of the Booth family was fascinating to me. I knew they were a family of actors but I had no idea that Father Junius Brutus Booth had such a terrific reputation as an interpreter of Shakespeare. In my limited knowledge any appreciation of Edwin was always overshadowed by the notorious assassin, John Wilkes. Tilton’s theme is that the murder of Lincoln in the theater with the killer leaping to the stage as a villain was in fact a conscious attempt of John to come out of Edwin’s shadow. What a peculiar family! Junius was a raging alcoholic and suffered bouts of madness. Edwin was so self-absorbed as an actor and theater impresario that his company actually performed “Our American Cousin” six months after Lincoln died watching it in Ford’s Theater. Remarkably Edwin overcame any tainted association with his brother and in later life was celebrated by presidents, generals and other “great” men of his time. The only blemish I might add is the scant attention paid to the assassination conspiracy. I did not expect this to be the book’s focus, but considering the author goes into great detail about John Brown and his capers, I would have thought Booth’s bloody act would warrant similar attention.