[Rarebooks] FS: Bates. Escape of John Wilkes Booth

[Back Creek Books]

Greetings All,

For your consideration:
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(No. 7167 )  Bates, Finis L[angdon].. THE ESCAPE AND SUICIDE OF JOHN WILKES
BOOTH, OR THE FIRST TRUE ACCOUNT OF LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION, CONTAINING A
COMPLETE CONFESSION BY BOOTH MANY YEARS AFTER THE CRIME
.
Atlanta: J. L. Nichols & Company, [1907]. Full cloth, Octavo, [x], 309
pages, black & white plates. Very good.
      One of the founding works in the "Booth survived!" mythology
surrounding Lincoln's assassination and the one upon which the "Enid Myth"
rests. Subtitle continues, "
Giving in Full Detail the Plans, Plot and
Intrigue of the Conspirators, and the Treachery of Andrew Johnson, then
Vice-President of the United States. Written for the Correction of History."
In 1872 Finis Bates, an attorney in Memphis, took a client by the name of
John St. Helen. Five years later on what he believed was his deathbed, St.
Helen confessed to Bates that he was in fact John Wilkes Booth, and had
escaped capture by the Union forces after assassinating Lincoln. St. Helen
survived his illness and Bates lost touch with him. In 1903 one David E.
George committed suicide in Enid, Oklahoma, whereupon a local clergyman
claimed that Mr. George had confessed to him that he was actually John
Wilkes Booth. Finis Bates got wind of the eerily familiar confession of
David E. George and set out for Oklahoma to view the body. Upon viewing it
Bates was sure George was St. Helen. He was to become equally convinced that
George/St. Helen was indeed John Wilkes Booth. He got custody of the
remains, wrote this book, and then hawked the book and exhibited the corpse
at carnivals and side shows around the country. The book was extremely
popular, particularly in the South (fancy that), but despite selling over
75,000 copies in its day very few remain today. This is due primarily to its
very poor manufacturing quality. This copy remains quite nice, bound in red
cloth over boards with black stamped spine and upper board. Light rubs to
extremities, some minor external soil. Pages are browned as usual, with one
or two dog ears but otherwise clean and free of ownership marks. Hinges not
cracked. Frontispiece photo of the author plus 15 other double-sided plates,
some from photographs. MONAGHAN #1519.    $300.00
See photo: http://www.backcreekbooks.com/bookphotos/7167.jpg

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Thank you for your interest.

Best regards,

Rock Toews
Back Creek Books
Post Office Box 3540, Annapolis, MD 21403, U.S.A.
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--
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today's featured book from our stock at the booksellers' cooperative,
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 [Abraham Lincoln Association] Newton, Joseph Fort and Benjamin P. Thomas
(Introduction by Logan Hay).  'The Spiritual Life of Lincoln: an
Interpretation [and] Lincoln and the Courts, 1854-1861 - Abraham Lincoln
Association Papers Delivered Before the Members of the Abraham Lincoln
Association.at Springfield, Illinois, on February 12, 1933.'
 Details and secure ordering:
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