In the Houses of Their Dead: The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits

In this intriguing if meandering study, historian Alford (Fortune’s Fool) views the “common experiences” of the Lincoln and Booth families through the lens of spiritualism. He details how Mary Todd Lincoln became interested in spiritualism after the death of the couple’s second child, Eddie, in 1850. When another son, Willie, died in 1862, Mary’s interest intensified, and the Lincolns sat for about a dozen seances with medium Nettie Colburn in a two-year period at the White House. Though Abraham Lincoln was “embarrassingly superstitious,” according to Alford, he viewed spiritualism largely as “entertainment,” whereas Mary “seemed to summon [ghostly visitors], bringing herself into a trance state just like a medium.” Elsewhere, Alford links the Booth family’s interest in spiritualism and the occult to patriarch Junius Brutus Booth, a talented but alcoholic and mentally unstable actor given to periodic breakdowns. During the Civil War, the Lincolns and Booths consulted the same mediums, including Englishman Charles Colchester (real name Jackson Sealby), who grew so alarmed by John Wilkes Booth’s threats against the president that he gave Lincoln “vague but repeated warnings to take care.” Though Alford occasionally wanders far afield from the book’s central theme, he packs the narrative with intriguing if little-known historical figures and strange coincidences. This unusual portrait of two famously intertwined families fascinates. (June)