In the houses of their dead The Lincolns, the Booths, and the spirits

Terry Alford

Book - 2022

"The story of Abraham Lincoln as it has never been told before: through the strange, even otherworldly, points of contact between his family and that of the man who killed him, John Wilkes Booth. In the 1820s, two families, unknown to each other, worked on farms in the American wilderness. It seemed unlikely that the families would ever meet-and yet, they did. The son of one family, the famed actor John Wilkes Booth, killed the son of the other, President Abraham Lincoln, in the most significant assassination in American history. The murder, however, did not come without warning-in fact, it had been foretold. In the Houses of Their Dead is the first book of the many thousands written about Lincoln to focus on the president's fasci...nation with Spiritualism, and to demonstrate how it linked him, uncannily, to the man who would kill him. Abraham Lincoln is usually seen as a rational, empirically-minded man, yet as acclaimed scholar and biographer Terry Alford reveals, he was also deeply superstitious and drawn to the irrational. Like millions of other Americans, including the Booths, Lincoln and his wife, Mary, suffered repeated personal tragedies, and turned for solace to Spiritualism, a new practice sweeping the nation that held that the dead were nearby and could be contacted by the living. Remarkably, the Lincolns and the Booths even used the same mediums, including Charles Colchester, a specialist in "blood writing" whom Mary first brought to her husband, and who warned the president after listening to the ravings of another of his clients, John Wilkes Booth. Alford's expansive, richly-textured chronicle follows the two families across the nineteenth century, uncovering new facts and stories about Abraham and Mary while drawing indelible portraits of the Booths-from patriarch Julius, a famous actor in his own right, to brother Edwin, the most talented member of the family and a man who feared peacock feathers, to their confidant Adam Badeau, who would become, strangely, the ghostwriter for President Ulysses S. Grant. At every turn, Alford shows that despite the progress of the age-the glass hypodermic syringe, electromagnetic induction, and much more-death remained ever-present, thus that it was only rational for millions of Americans, from the president on down, to cling to beliefs that seem anything but. A novelistic narrative of two exceptional American families set against the convulsions their times, In the Houses of Their Dead ultimately leads us to consider how ghost stories helped shape the nation"--

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Terry Alford (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xvii, 298 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-285) and index.
ISBN
9781631495601
  • Introduction
  • 1. If the Fates Allow
  • 2. His Imperfect Self
  • 3. So Old When He Was Young
  • 4. God's Most Precious Truth
  • 5. Love's Sacred Circle
  • 6. Ghost Kisses
  • 7. Why Wake Me?
  • 8. Fatal Vision
  • 9. Are We So Soon Forgot?
  • 10. Death Came as a Friend
  • Epilogue
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Illustration Credits
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

The Lincolns' obsession with reaching out to their beloved son Willie after his early death from typhoid has been extensively reported, but historian Alford demonstrates that it wasn't just Abraham Lincoln's family who turned to spiritualism. Ironically, the thespian family of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth had something of a parallel interest in communicating with the departed. Alford, having written a definitive biography of Booth (Fortune's Fool, 2015), knows the territory. He explores Lincoln's own religious sensibilities, which ran deep but were unmoored to any particular creed. Mary Todd Lincoln sought the advice of different spiritualists who might bring her some solace by convincing her of the ongoing life of her departed son. Other contemporaries hungered for similar assurances, and some charlatans even went so far as to attempt to blackmail the First Lady. Alford introduces readers to many spiritualist-devoted characters who held influential posts in both military and government. This may hold special appeal for fans of George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo (2017), since it provides factual background for the popular novel.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this intriguing if meandering study, historian Alford (Fortune's Fool) views the "common experiences" of the Lincoln and Booth families through the lens of spiritualism. He details how Mary Todd Lincoln became interested in spiritualism after the death of the couple's second child, Eddie, in 1850. When another son, Willie, died in 1862, Mary's interest intensified, and the Lincolns sat for about a dozen seances with medium Nettie Colburn in a two-year period at the White House. Though Abraham Lincoln was "embarrassingly superstitious," according to Alford, he viewed spiritualism largely as "entertainment," whereas Mary "seemed to summon , bringing herself into a trance state just like a medium." Elsewhere, Alford links the Booth family's interest in spiritualism and the occult to patriarch Junius Brutus Booth, a talented but alcoholic and mentally unstable actor given to periodic breakdowns. During the Civil War, the Lincolns and Booths consulted the same mediums, including Englishman Charles Colchester (real name Jackson Sealby), who grew so alarmed by John Wilkes Booth's threats against the president that he gave Lincoln "vague but repeated warnings to take care." Though Alford occasionally wanders far afield from the book's central theme, he packs the narrative with intriguing if little-known historical figures and strange coincidences. This unusual portrait of two famously intertwined families fascinates. (June)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Historian Alford (Fortune's Fool) brings an ingenious twist to the well-known tale of Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. Alford adds details and corrects common misconceptions about their lives as the story works toward its inevitable conclusion. With the six degrees of separation theory in hand, the author points out every point where the lives of these two families intersected in the young and divided United States. Narrator Danny Campbell puts his experience and expertise to good use. His even, authoritative tone delivers the facts clearly, aiding in their absorption. This is especially important given the multitude of time lines being followed from beginning to end. One of the main themes throughout the book is the abundance and popularity of spiritualists and the spiritualism movement of this era. The Booths and Lincolns consulted many and had some in common. Life was precarious even without a civil war, and the living wanted to maintain their connections to their dearly departed. VERDICT Listeners will appreciate the clarity of voice Campbell executes, helping them keep it all straight and enhancing those moments they may not have known about before.--Laura Trombley

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A tale of two historically prominent families who shared a fascination with spiritualism. That John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, is universally known, but no member of either family had met until that day--despite the fact that two Booth brothers and their father were nationally known actors and the Lincolns had attended their performances. Historian Alford cuts back and forth among the lives of Abraham and Mary Lincoln and Junius Booth and his sons Edwin and John Wilkes without ignoring lesser-known members of both families. Faithful to his theme, Alford reminds readers that 19th-century America was rife with superstition, and all of his subjects possessed elements of the true believer. Lincoln, for example, "refused to become the thirteenth person at a table once," and the deaths of spouses and children were a common obsession. "Quasi-religious in nature," writes Alford, "spiritualism held that the dead were nearby." Skeptics abounded, and everyone agreed that many mediums were charlatans, but believers had no doubt that some could summon the dead. Although a skeptic about some aspects of spiritualism, Lincoln attended séances and sometimes praised the mediums, but he did not take them seriously. This was definitely not the case with his wife, Mary, devastated by the deaths of two children, her husband, and then another child; she remained a devoted spiritualist to her dying day. With a father and three sons on the stage, the Booths were no strangers to torment, mental illness, and personal tragedy, and they indulged in anything that might relieve their misery--although alcohol competed effectively with the occult. In the end, spiritualism contributed little to American politics of the time or even to theatrical history, but it preoccupied a good portion of the population. Nonetheless, even history buffs will find new information in Alford's sympathetic examination. Niche history but a good read. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.