A Gambler's Instinct: The Story of Broadway Producer Cheryl Crawford Book

The author, Nora Titone, grabbed me from the very first paragraph, in which she describes how Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, battles a blizzard to give a speech at a gala feast that would be attended by Mark Twain and hundreds of the leading figures of 1892. The honoree of the night would be an actor named Booth, an actor with strong ties to President Lincoln, probably the best-known actor of his day. No, not John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Father Abraham, but rather, his brother, Edwin Booth.

Thus begins a mesmerizing account of the growth'and near death by civil war'of a young nation told through the lives of two men who participated in, either directly or indirectly, nearly every important event of the times. From the Gold Rush to the hanging of John Brown to the New York draft riots'and of course the Civil War and the assassination of Lincoln'Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth had front row seats. These nation-changing events are described by the author like the sharp jewels they were, terrifyingly dangerous crucibles in which men were either made or lost forever. With diamond-like clarity, Titone presents a stupendous amount of scholarly research in such an accessible and vivid way that even a reader such as myself, most definitely NOT a civil war history buff, becomes completely engrossed in the world being described. Yet even more than describing a historical moment, the book is an extremely detailed look at the people who lived in that moment, and reads nearly like a novel. Through original letters written not only by the two brothers, but also by their family members and intimate associates, Titone reconstructs the thoughts, motivations and personal rivalries that drove Edwin and John Wilkes to become the men they grew up to be: Edwin, a colossally famous and wealthy Shakespearean actor; his brother John Wilkes, an itinerant actor always in his older brother's shadow and an infamous presidential murderer. Ironically, today every American grade schooler knows the name of the assassin, but the name of the man who was so famous in his day that he was recognized in the street by strangers has been completely forgotten.

I cannot put it any better than does Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of "Team of Rivals," in the forward she wrote for "My Thoughts Be Bloody": "This book forces us to look at the familiar story of Lincoln's assassination in a new way'through the lens of [Booth's] tangled family history." Without a doubt, one of the best books I have read in a very long time, and one that should be on every must-read list this holiday season.