Edwin Booth — What Makes Us Truly Important?

A National and Personal Tragedy

A great tragedy in American history was the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Edwin's younger brother, John Wilkes Booth—at left in the photo, Edwin center, and older brother Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. at right. This was taken when the three appeared in Julius Caesar in 1864, the only time they acted together.

Lincoln's assasination came from one man's horrible notion of importance taken to the extreme, and which is the most ruthless thing in everyone: if anyone else is important I am less—I have to be "the only important thing in sight."

John Wilkes Booth, an actor himself, was increasingly furious at Edwin's success which was far greater than his. And the brothers disagreed intensely about which side was right in the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth being fiercely for the South. He felt important making an entire race—black people—unimportant. Lincoln stood mightily for opposition to this; when it looked as if the opposition might become law, John Wilkes Booth became infuriated. Eleanor Ruggles writes:

On April 11th...he...listen[ed] to Lincoln speaking from a balcony in favor of giving the ballot to the Negro..."Now, by God, I'll put him through!"

The whole world was shocked and Edwin Booth's life was shattered. Not knowing at first who was responsible, government officials arrested most members of the Booth family. Edwin Booth—who cared deeply for Lincoln and, in fact, had once saved his son's life—went into hiding and said he would never act again. Eleanor Ruggles writes that afterwards "a little of the savor of life came back to him—but not the whole, ever."

I feel so much for Edwin Booth. I am sure he would have been so grateful if he could have known what Aesthetic Realism explains, that with a terrible, unspeakable tragedy a person can confirm an inaccurate opinion of the world come to years before. Edwin Booth, I think, felt more than ever the world was messy, cruel and meaningless—a place in which he should act genteel but essentially stay away.

Yet it is greatly to Booth's credit that he did continue to act and even built the Booth Theatre on 23rd Street, staging again productions of Shakespeare with unparalleled beauty. He founded the Players Club for actors, still on Gramercy Park, where he lived his last years. But Booth seemed to get old very fast, and often spoke of wanting to die, which he did at the age of 60 in 1893.

Edwin Booth's life and art cry out for the need of people to know Aesthetic Realism. He needed to know the most important thing in him that made for true art: his desire to like the world. And he needed to know the greatest interference to this: contempt

Aesthetic Realism has enabled me to use my mind to like the world, to be honestly interested in people's lives, in history, literature, the drama and to feel passionately about what is happening in the world. This has given my life true importance, happiness, sweetness and dignity, and I want everyone to know it.

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