Edwin Thomas Booth (American National Biography)

Booth retired temporarily from the stage after his brother John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on 14 April 1865. In early 1866 he returned to, as he put it, "the only profession for which God has suited me." For the remainder of his life, however, he refused invitations to perform in Washington, D.C. Audiences attached no blame to Booth for his brother's crime. Drama critic William Winter described his return to the stage: "Nine cheers hailed the melancholy Dane upon his first entrance. The spectators rose and waved their hats and handkerchiefs. Bouquets fell in a shower upon the stage, and there was a tempest of applause, wherever he appeared." Booth continued his career with almost universal acclaim.