Booth » (First Edition)

CATHERINE CLINTON, who writes here under the pseudonym CC Colbert, is a professor of history at Queen's University Belfast specializing in American history with an emphasis on the south. She is also the author of Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom and Mrs. Lincoln: A Life.

TANITOC is a French bande dessinee artist, writer and lecturer. He is the author of two graphic novels, and a founder-member of the International Bande Dessinee Society. He is known as a scholar on comics criticism and theory. He has run workshops in France, Ireland, Britain and Japan. He lives in the Loire Valley with his family.

In a time when brother was pitted against brother, no family was more divided than the Booths.

The United States has become violently polarized. Political fanaticism divides an embittered populace. A recently elected President—an energizing symbol of change for some, and a harbinger of the downfall of America for others—stands at the center of the turmoil. It is 1865, and John Wilkes Booth is about to assassinate the President of the United States.

From the pen of American historian C.C. Colbert and the brush of French comics master Tanitoc comes a thought-provoking perspective on one of the greatest villains of U.S. History: a killer who was also an actor, a lover, a doubter, and, in his own mind, a patriot.

Children's Literature

Many young adult novels have been written about Abraham Lincoln's childhood, presidency, and ultimate demise; however, very few books for young adults have focused on the life of his killer, John Wilkes Booth. Colbert and artists Tanitoc and Sycamore give their fictionalized take on the infamous assassin in this graphic novel. Spanning the years of the American Civil War, the story paints Booth as a frustrated actor always in the shadow of his more accomplished (and Union-supporting) brother, Edwin. Even Booth's romance with socialite Lucy Hale could not quell his feelings of inadequacy, thanks partly to her relationship with Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son. But when Booth is recruited as a Confederate spy, he becomes an increasingly dangerous agent in a plot to eliminate the Union president. This fast-paced graphic novel does a good job in conveying Booth's frustration and desire for greatness, yet it moves so quickly through different periods that it almost requires the reader to have a working knowledge of Booth's life to appreciate the story and separate fact from embellishment. Readers should also know that French graphic novel artist Tanitoc does not shy away from drawing scenes of sex and nudity, particularly in Booth's dalliances with Ella, "a woman of questionable virtue." Ultimately, although the graphic novel is an intriguing exercise in historical fiction, as Colbert's author's note clarifies, it is still merely a starting point for readers interested in studying more about the Lincoln assassination and Booth himself. Reviewer: Michael Jung