The Spur

by Ardyth Kennelly

His name was John Wilkes Booth. On that Good Friday in 1865, he crept into the Lincoln box in the Ford Theater in Washington, and, standing close behind the gaunt President, he pronounced the words "Sic semper tyrannis," and pulled the trigger of his tiny, gold-mounted derringer. With a light movement he vaulted over the railing to the stage. But his spur caught in the flag draped on the box, and he fell. The audience sat frozen as he hopped on one leg from the stage.

John Wilkes Booth was a star in the American theater, adored by many women, lionized by many men. What were the forces that drove him to commit one of the most notorious crimes in our history? What led him to assume a role more dramatic than anything he had ever played on the stage?

Here are the answers. Here is the story of the twisted emotions and the hidden passions that turned this handsome, talented young actor into a bitter, psychopathic killer.

Step by step the fascinating pattern emerges: young Booth idolized by his family -- his strange, narcissistic love for his sister Asia, who had the same beauty he saw in himself -- his violent and unsatisfactory love affairs -- his fanatical hatred and jealousy of his famous brother Edwin -- his heavy drinking and wild excesses -- and finally, his disastrous dreams of glory: "The man who kills Lincoln can be sure of immortality -- real immortality!"

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Ardyth Matilda Kennelly was an American novelist with five works of historical/literary fiction published between 1949 and 1956, and one published posthumously, in 2014.