John Wilkes Booth

<p> By 1865 at the age of 26 Booth had much to lose: a loving family hosts of friends adoring women professional success as one of America's foremost actors and the promise of yet more fame and fortune. Yet he formed a daring conspiracy to abduct Lincoln and barter him for Confederate prisoners of war. The Civil War ended before Booth could carry out his plan so he assassinated the president believing him to be a tyrant who had turned the once-proud Union into an engine of oppression that had devastated the South.</p><p> This book gives a day-by-day account of Booth's complex life--from his birth May 10 1838 to his death April 26 1865 and the aftermath--and offers a new understanding of the crime that shocked a nation.</p>