BOOTH, Edwin (1833-1893). Autograph letter signed ("Edwin Booth") to Luke Lockwood describing an attempted assassination by a theatergoer, Cincinnati, 2 March 1882.

2pp., 8vo (260 x 203 mm), on Grand Hotel stationery, folds, two stray ink stains.

In part: "I remarked, 'Perhaps McV, to vent his file, will get Mark Grey, my would-be assassin, released.' Of course I said this in guile - never dreaming that the fellow, who in McV's theater in 1879, shot thrice at and barely missed me, would ever be released from the lunatic asylum where I had him placed, and whose superintendent (Kilbourn by name) assured McV so long as he had control Grey should not be let go, nor did he think that any sane man would release so dangerous a [illegible]. Imagine my surprise today when I learned that Grey had been let at liberty three months ago! People who know him have seen him. While acting in St. Louis, the house of Grey, two weeks ago, I heard, during one of my scenes, what I expected to be a pistol shot... I do not seriously think McV has had anything to do with his release, but they who will murder reputations are capable of any dastardly act, and it may be just possible that McV, who knows Kilbourn, has (on my behalf) pleaded for Grey's release. He and his wife are scoundrels and would stoop to anything to wreak their vengeance for being frustrated in their scheme to rob me..."

As Edwin Booth delivered a soliloquy as King Richard II at McVicker's Theatre in Chicago on 23 April 1879, a young man suddenly leapt to his feet, removed a pistol he'd concealed in his sleeve, and fired two shots towards the stage. No one reacted to the first shot; everyone, including Booth, believed it to be an accident from backstage. A second shot rang out a moment later, and Booth, realizing what was happening, rose to his feet and raised his arm, pointing in the direction of where the shots were coming from. At once, a crowd of people surrounded Mark Gray and drove him to his knees, wresting the pistol out of his hand as they did. As he was brought to Chicago's Central Station, Gray muttered, "I don’t see how I happened to miss him. I am sorry that I didn’t take some lessons in pistol practice before I tried this thing."

During a trial a few weeks later, Gray pled guilty to the charge of attempted murder; it was here that Gray claimed that he'd attempted to shoot Booth because he believed Booth to be his father. Gray was sent to the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum. Following Gray's institutionalization, Booth's wife, Mary McVicker Booth (stepdaughter to McVicker's Theatre owner J.H. McVicker), whose mental and physical health was already fragile following the miscarriage of a son in 1870, declined further, and she died of tuberculosis in 1881. Her stepfather, whose professional and personal life was closely tied to Booth, was suspected by him of orchestrating Gray's release in 1882, as evidenced in the present letter.

This lot is located in Chicago.