This is the first complete edition of the letters and notebooks of actress Mary Devlin, Edwin Booth's first wife, and is the first reference of its kind in nineteenth-century American theatre scholarship. These documents provide a fascinating perspective on Booth, his life, and the development of his career, and include new materials recently uncovered through the editor's research. The volume is also a valuable guide to biograhical information about Booth's father and brother (John Wilkes Booth), and to studies of Mary Devlin Booth and her influence on her husband. In addition, it...

Edwin Booth was the foremost Shakespearean actor in late nineteenth-century America, enjoying almost mythic status. This comprehensive analysis and documentation of his career provides an aperture from which to view theatre and society of the period. The scholarly bibliography of over 1,000 annotated entries includes substantive writings about Booth in books, journals, and dissertations covering 130 years during and after his career as well as ephemeral references to Booth in the major journals of his day and a section of specialized reference materials relating to Booth. Among its unique...