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John Wilkes Booth Autograph Letter Signed...
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Description
Lincoln's assassin writes to an associate only a year before Lincoln's death to mourn the loss of his "best friend" - a flask
John Wilkes Booth Autograph Letter Signed "J. Wilkes
Booth" to "Kim," Moses Kimball. Three and a half pages
of a bifolium, 5" x 8"; St. Joseph [Missouri]; January 2, 1864, 10
P.M. Lined paper, blindstamped "Omaha Hills."In 1841, Moses Kimball founded the Boston Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts, more commonly called the Boston Museum. The Boston Museum was the city's leading theater and Booth played the museum repeatedly in the years leading up to the assassination. Booth seems to have been traveling with Kimball and his wife when a storm stranded him in St. Joseph, Missouri, causing the actor to miss an engagement at a theater in Saint Louis.
This self-derisive letter showcases a performance by the famed actor for an audience of one - his sometime-employer and friend, Moses Kimball. It is difficult to harmonize Booth the assassin with Booth the performer. The present letter paints a startling image, largely unfamiliar to modern readers, of a playful Booth, ever the performer, mourning the loss of his "best friend" to the crushing weight of a wagon, after which Booth, "kissed him in his last moments by pressing the snow, to my lips, over which he had spilled his noble blood." But the blood was drink, and the best friend, a flask.
The letter reads: "Here I am snowed in again. And God knows when I shall be able to get away. I have telegraphed St: Louis for them not to expect me. It seems to me that some of my old luck has returned to hunt me down. I hope you passed a delightful New Years you and your kind lady. but I fear not. I will give you a slight glimpse of mine. I arrived at Fort with an ear frost-bitten. I saw our friends there, had a ___, well I won't say what, and then after giving my boy my flask to keep for me, I started for a run and made the river (four miles) on foot. I run without a stop, all the way. I then found my boy had lost that treasured flask. I had to pay five dollars for a bare-backed horse to hunt for it. I returned within sight of the Fort and judge my dismay upon arriving to see a waggon [sic] just crushing my best friend. But I kissed him in his last moments by pressing the snow, to my lips, over which he had spilled his noble blood. I got back to the river in time, to help and cut the ice that the boat might come to the shore. And after a 'sea of troubles,' reached this Hotel a dead man. Got to bed as soon as I could where I have been ever since. am better now though and will I expect get up tomorrow. You must excuse this scrawl. I am the worst letter writer alive. and I am trying to get through this on a cold bed. Give my best wishes to Mrs Kimbal [sic] and ask her to forgive me for keeping her husband out so late at night. I guess she is glad I am gone. We may get away from here Monday -- or tomorrow -- we can-not tell. Hoping you will remember me to all my friends, and that you will look over this poorly written letter. I remain Yours Truly J. Wilkes Booth"
Published in "Right of Wrong, God Judge Me": The Writings of John Wilkes Booth, ed. John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper, pages 93-94; Alford, Fortune's Fool: The Life of John Wilkes Booth, pages 167-172.
Condition: Lightly toned, creased along old folds, beginning to split along center fold but not affecting text. Small remnants of archival tape to top margin where previously mounted, scattered ink stains and smudges, signature dark and bold.
Provenance: John Gribbel, Philadelphia, Parke-Bernet Galleries, April 16-17, 1945, lot 32. Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang, Sotheby's, April 26, 1978, lot 46. West Coast Collector, Christie's, December 9, 1993, lot 158. The Taper Collection, date unknown. Private Collection, Christie's December 16, 2004, lot 419.
Auction Info
2023 September 21 Historical Manuscripts Signature® Auction #6272 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
September, 2023
21st
Thursday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 9
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