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Consider The Elephant by Aram Schefrin
Historical Fiction
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The common wisdom is that the men who have attacked American Presidents - Czolgosz, Guiteau, Fromme, Hinckley, Moore, Oswald, Zangara - were disgruntled, disturbed loners. That wisdom includes John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, called a failed actor and a madman.
But the truth is that Wilkes was the matinee idol of his time; and the attack on Lincoln was not the act of a maniac, but a part of a plan developed at the highest levels of the Confederacy.
In "Consider the Elephant," by Aram Schefrin, the story of Wilkes'
life and death is told by his brother, Edwin Booth, called "Ned." Ned was the greatest Shakespearean actor of his age, as was their father Junius in his era; and their brother June was an actor, too, though less successful than his brothers. The story is soaked in the ambiance of life in the American theater in the mid nineteenth century, and full of rich characters. It lays out in detail the path Wilkes took to the top of the celebrity heap, his growing involvement with the Southern rebels and the development in Richmond of the plot to kidnap - and later assassinate - the Union President.
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Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works- 3.0 United States License.
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Chapters
| Title | Description | Date Created |
| Chapter 1 (16.2 MB) | Edwin Booth, while acting Shakespeare in Boston, hears the news that his brother Wilkes has assassinated President Lincoln. The rest of his run is cancelled. He believes he will never work again. His sister Asia, in Philadelphia, collapses in grief. Their mother runs to Philadelphia, and so does their brother June, but Edwin is afraid to go, and hides in his home to New York. June and Asia's husband Jack are arrested in Philadelphia on suspicion of being involved in the killing of the President. Under house arrest, Asia learns that the Federals have caught and killed Wilkes. | Feb 19, 2006 |
| Chapter 2 (21.54 MB) | Edwin goes to Washington to talk to the Federal police, and to visit June in the Old Capitol Prison. Jack is finally cleared of the crime, and Asia wangles June's release through Philadelphia friends. Edwin goes to Philadelphia. June goes home to San Francisco. On a hot June night, a young Southern boy arrives at Asia's house. His father owns the farm on which Wilkes had been captured and killed. He describes for the family Wilkes' last days, and hands Edwin Wilkes' diary, which he had found in the ashes of his father's tobacco barn. | Feb 19, 2006 |
| Chapter 3 (13.01 MB) | Wilkes begins his acting career in Baltimore and Philadelphia. | Feb 19, 2006 |
| Chapter 4 (9.49 MB) | Wilkes joins a company in Richmond, Virginia. While the local men talk secession, the women fawn on Wilkes. | Feb 19, 2006 |
| Chapter 5 (14.59 MB) | Ned comes to Richmond to star at the Old Marshall, and falls in love with an actress named Mary Devlin. Wilkes can't understand why Ned would want to marry when he could have any woman he wants. Ned reveals his awful past, and that Mary is his salvation. | Feb 19, 2006 |
| Chapter 6 (19.2 MB) | Asia objects violently to Ned's marriage to Mary. Out of respect for his family, Ned gives her up. Before he leaves Richmond, he gives Wilkes the lead role in Othello, and Wilkes makes his first appearance in his own name. During Wilkes' second season in Richmond, John Brown raids Harper's Ferry, hoping to set off a slave insurrection, and panicking the South. Brown is quickly captured, but Southerners who want secession use Brown as an excuse. Wilkes meets Ned in Boston, which is hysterical over Brown, and performs Richard the Third with him. Wilkes finds the town too staid. At a gathering after the theater, Adam Badeau (Ned's New York teacher and confidante) tells Ned he has heard that Mary is in Boston, acting in Charlotte Cushmans company, and is going to marry a Boston lawyer. Ned is devastated. Back in Richmond, Wilkes joins the Richmond Grays and travels to Charlestown to watch the hanging of John Brown, then returns to begin his role as a national star. | Mar 8, 2006 |
| Chapter 7 (15.1 MB) | Desperately missing Mollie, Ned goes back on the booze. Adam Badeau gets Wilkes to intervene with Mollie, who quits Cushman's troop immediately and rushes back to New York. Ned asks her to marry him. She says "yes." After the wedding, Wilkes and other wedding guests stay on for a bit; Ned and Mollie take them down Broadway, giving them a guided tour. Ned introduces Wilkes to Matthew Canning, a Philadelphia lawyer and actor's agent, and Wilkes and Canning reach a representation agreement. Wilkes plays Columbus, Georgia; Canning meets him there and accidentally shoots him in the leg. In Montgomery, Maggie Mitchell takes Wilkes to hear the Prince of Fire-eaters on the night before the Presidential election. | Mar 25, 2006 |
| Chapter 8 (13.07 MB) | The family gathers at Asia's for Christmas in Philadelphia. Asia is rabid against Abraham Lincoln; she tells the others what she has heard: that Lincoln will be murdered in Baltimore on his way to Washington. Wilkes announces he is going to join the Maryland militia after the state secedes. Mother makes him swear he won't. While Wilkes performs in Rochester and Albany, New York, South Carolina secedes and assaults Fort Sumter. Wilkes returns to Maryland to join the Rebel army. | Mar 25, 2006 |
| Chapter 9 (8.51 MB) | Wilkes looks up a school friend, Michael O'Laughlen. He asks O'Laughlen to hook him up with Rebels in Maryland. O'Laughlen tells him that the attempt on Lincoln's life has failed and that Maryland is under Federal martial law and is not going to secede. Then he introduces Wilkes to shoemaker Christian Emmerich and Marshal George Kane. Kane is defecting to the South. At Kane's request, Wilkes agrees, rather than join a fighting unit, to stay in the North and help in the smuggling of contraband such as medicines across the lines to the South. Atfer Bull Run, Emmerich sends Wilkes to Philadelphia to pick up a package. Wilkes stays with Asia and tells her what he's doing. She is thrilled. | Mar 25, 2006 |
| Chapter 10 (7.16 MB) | New York City considers seceding, since its economic fortunes are tied to the South. But the Union buildup brings new money into the city, and New York decides to stay in the fold. Adam enlists in the Union Army, as an aide to General Grant. His last advice to Ned: go to Europe and study There is no fighting going on, so Wilkes goes back to the stage. In Cincinnati, Maggie Mitchell offers to arrange an appearance for him in New York. Wilkes is afraid of that, since, to him, New York is Ned's city. But in Chicago he meets Raufer, a scenery man, who introduces him to magical new staging and lighting techniques - and Wilkes realizes that, with these, he can conquer New York. | Apr 1, 2006 |
| Chapter 11 (10.52 MB) | Wilkes triumphs in New York. He and Maggie go to Pfaff's Cafe to wait for the reviews. | Apr 9, 2006 |
| Chapter 12 (5.19 MB) | Following Adam's advice, Ned and Mollie go to Europe. But since Mollie is four months pregnant, they go to England, where they trust the doctors, rather than France or Italy. Ned searches the places where his father hsd been, but finds little trace of him. Mollie weakens as the baby grows, and has to take to bed. Ned takes an acting engagement in London, but the British are hostile, since the U.S. Navy has boarded a British ship and taken off two Southern rebels who were heading to England to convince the Queen to support the Confederacy. Mollie gives birth to Edwina. They take a brief tour of France, then return to America. Mollie is too delicate to return to New York, so they take a house in Dorchester, outside Boston. Ned is there when Wilkes plays Boston, with great success, turning staid Brahmin women into romantic fools. | Apr 11, 2006 |
| Chapter 13 (8.93 MB) | McClellan invades Virginia, up the peninsula between the York and James Rivers. The Yankees win the battles; still McClellan retreats, believing the Rebels too strong. Wilkes returns to smuggling contraband. Edwin returns to the stage, afraid he will not be well received - but he is a sensation. He is so relieved that he finds himself for the first time able to talk to strangers. He attends New York's premier salons and soirees, and starts drinking again. When Wilkes arrives in New York, he finds Edwin a drunkard. Wilkes brings word from Boston that Mollie is ill. But he believes she will recover, so Edwin ignores the news, as well as telegrams from Boston which say that Mollie has taken a turn for the worse and may not last the night - until a theater manager forces him to read them. Frantic, he catches a train for Boston. But it's too late. | Apr 18, 2006 |
| Chapter 14 (7.04 MB) | Since Mollie's death, Edwin has been seeing and hearing her. With Adam's help, he arranges a seance to try to contact her. | Apr 21, 2006 |
| Chapter 15 (12.72 MB) | John Surratt, a Confederate spy, contacts Wilkes and shows him the courier route from Washington to the Northern Neck of Virginia through T.B., Surrattsville and the Maryland countryside, and across the Potomac at Port Tobacco. | May 7, 2006 |
| Chapter 16 (10.45 MB) | Wilkes, Edwin and Adam survive the New York City draft riots. | May 7, 2006 |
| Chapter 17 (9.11 MB) | Trying to get to St. Louis, Wilkes spends Christmas in Leavenworth, is stranded in a blizzard and fights off a wolf. | May 7, 2006 |
| Chapter 18 (4.87 MB) | Sick and exhausted, Wilkes tours Southern towns under Union occupation while General Grant cuts a swath through Virginia. In New Orleans, Wilkes hears the story of how his father died. | May 14, 2006 |
| Chapter 19 (5.38 MB) | Lincoln is nominated for a second term, and Wilkes prospects for oil in Venango County, Pennsylvania. | May 21, 2006 |
| Chapter 20 (6.87 MB) | In Boston, Wilkes meets with Confederate agents from Canada and signs on to a plot to kidnap President Lincoln. | May 25, 2006 |
| Chapter 21 (10.54 MB) | Wilkes tells Asia of the Lincoln kidnap plot. Wilkes meets Patrick Martin in Montreal, makes his first contacts on the route he plans to use to take the kidnapped President to Richmond, and gets details on Lincoln's routine. | Jun 11, 2006 |
| Chapter 22 (9.51 MB) | Lincoln is re-elected, and Wilkes meets Dr. Samuel Mudd. | Jun 13, 2006 |
| Chapter 23 (10.25 MB) | While the three Booths perform "Julius Caesar", Confederates raid New York City, setting fires on Broadway in the hotels and theaters. | Jun 24, 2006 |
| Chapter 24 (9.54 MB) | Wilkes leaves an envelope with Asia in Philadelphia, then meets the conspirators in Washington. | Jun 27, 2006 |
| Chapter 25 (13.35 MB) | Wilkes gets a tour of John Ford's new theater in Washington, then meets a new conspirator - Lewis Thornton Powell. | Jul 1, 2006 |
| Chapter 26 (11.02 MB) | Wilkes and Surratt decide to snatch Lincoln at his inaugural ball, and Wilkes concocts a clever way to get into the event. | Jul 5, 2006 |
| Chapter Twenty-Seven (9.49 MB) | Wilkes goes to the inaugural ball but, out of concern for Lucy Hale, decides not to snatch the President there. | Jul 8, 2006 |
| Chapter 28 (13.67 MB) | Wilkes takes his crew to a play at Ford's Theater. An attempt to snatch the President on the Seventh Street Road fails when Lincoln doesn't show. | Jul 12, 2006 |
| Chapter 29 (6.72 MB) | Now Richmond doesn't want Lincoln snatched. Wilkes is devastated. | Jul 14, 2006 |
| Chapter 30 (12.42 MB) | As their cause becomes more desperate, the Confederates decide to kill Lincoln - but without involving Wilkes. Richmond falls, and Wilkes - despondent - disbands his crew. But the Rebel plan is thwarted, and Mary Surratt asks Wilkes to assassinate the President as well as six other members of the Federal government. | Jul 19, 2006 |
| Chapter 31 (11.51 MB) | Wilkes urges the managers of two Washington theaters to invite Lincoln to a performance on Good Friday night. Surratt tells Wilkes he will have to escape to Canada. | Jul 24, 2006 |
| Chapter 32 (10.72 MB) | Wilkes learns that Lincoln is going to the theater. He makes his preparations. | Aug 2, 2006 |
| Chapter 33 (15.47 MB) | The assassination | Aug 3, 2006 |
| Chapter 34 (9.71 MB) | Escape: Dr. Samuel Mudd treats Wilkes' broken leg | Aug 8, 2006 |
| Chapter 35 (18.76 MB) | Escape: Thomas Jones gets Wilkes to the Potomac. | Aug 13, 2006 |
| Chapter 36 (10.85 MB) | Bainbridge, Ruggles and Jett | Aug 17, 2006 |
| Chapter 37 (5.15 MB) | Ned writes a letter to Wilkes. Finis. | Aug 18, 2006 |