Editing Edwin Booth (section)

==Early life==
Booth was born in [[Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland|Bel Air, Maryland]], into the Anglo-American theatrical [[Booth family]]. He was the son of the famous actor [[Junius Brutus Booth]], an Englishman, and his mistress (later wife) Mary Ann Holmes. He was named after [[Edwin Forrest]] and [[Thomas Flynn (actor)|Thomas Flynn]], two of Junius' colleagues. He was the younger brother of [[Junius Brutus Booth Jr.]] and the elder brother of [[John Wilkes Booth]].

Nora Titone, in her book ''My Thoughts Be Bloody'', recounts how the shame and ambition of Junius Brutus Booth's three actor sons, Junius Jr. (who never achieved the level of stardom of his younger brothers), Edwin, and John Wilkes, spurred them to strive, as rivals, for achievement and acclaim. Politically Edwin was a [[Unionist (United States)|Unionist]]; John supported the Confederacy and later became notorious as the [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|assassin]] of President [[Abraham Lincoln]].<ref>DePuy, W. H. (1895). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ON46AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA314&dq=%22born+in+bel+air%22+%22booth+edwin+thomas%22+%22nov+3+1833%22+%22booth+john+wilkes%22+%22born+in+1839%22 Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, Volume 4]''. Chicago: The Werner Company. p.&nbsp;314.</ref><ref name="Titone 2010">Titone, Nora. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=vBSQUOMDMLEC My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy]". New York: Simon and Schuster; 2010 [cited September 24, 2011]. {{ISBN|978-1-4165-8605-0}}.</ref>

Junius Brutus Booth was "famously peculiar ... . Several sons succeeded him in his career ... and his idiosyncrasies: Edwin had an abiding fear of ivy vines and peacock feathers."<ref>Greenblatt, Leah, [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/26/books/review/in-the-houses-of-their-dead-terry-alford.html "Necromancers, Killers and Presidents, Summoned From the Pages of History: Did Abraham Lincoln, like John Wilkes Booth, ever find solace in spiritualism?,"] ''The New York Times'', June 26, 2022 (review of Alford, Terry, ''In the Houses of Their Dead: The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits'', New York: Liveright, 2022).</ref>