The Paid Companion of J. Wilkes Booth [Hardcover]

Jan Merlin (Author), William Russo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2003

THE PAID COMPANION OF J. WILKES BOOTH arises out of years of research and intense collaboration by two writers interested in the accurate rendering of the 19th century, especially theater history and the plight of Confederate deserters like the Lewis Paine.

What you never knew about the Lincoln Assassination!

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 281 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corp (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1413410278
• ISBN-13: 978-1413410273
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,411,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. William Russo is a film critic and author.

In recent years he has collaborated with Emmy-winning writer, Jan Merlin. The two men have one historical novel, The Paid Companion of J.Wilkes Booth. The team and has also written books on Hollywood features, Troubles in a Golden Eye (about the making of John Huston's Reflections in a Golden Eye), and MGM Makes Boys Town (a study of the efforts to film the docudrama about Father Flanagan which starred Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney). The latest tandem effort is Hanging With Billy Budd, which details the adaptations of the Melville novel to stage, screen, opera, radio, and television.

Russo wrote a memoir and study of James Kirkwood, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Chorus Line, based on years of discussions and conversations with his old friend. One of Russo's most popular books is A Thinker's Damn: Audie Murphy, Vietnam, and the Making of The Quiet American. This work also takes a notable literary work, by Graham Greene, and traces the evolution into a seminal American movie, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz. For this work, Dr. Russo interviewed all the survivors of the first American film made in Vietnam. The book provides, arguably, the most incisive portrait of film star and war hero Audie Murphy. He has contributed essays to Spencer Tracy Fox Film Actor, published by the New England Vintage Film Society, and has essays in the compilation book Stage to Screen.

As editor for Lukeion Press, part of Author22 Publishing, out of Las Vegas, he served guided writers like Frank Vinh Noan (Vietnam, My Love) who was Joseph Mankiewicz's assistant troubleshooter for The Quiet American, and William Cate, a young musician whose diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis led to the book, Body Hate: A Gay Man's Struggle.

Russo holds a Master of Arts degree and a doctorate.

An inveterate writer of letters, Russo has corresponded with some of the most famous people of the past fifty years from Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis to Richard Nixon and Dr. Richard Mudd, giving him a window into many worlds and providing him with first-hand research information for various books.

In 2011 he appeared in the film A Walk with Mal Tempo.

He has written a number of humor books, including Red Sox 2011: A Whimsical Autopsy. Others entertainments include: Sex, Drugs, Sports & Whimsy (2 volumes) as well as Rajon Rondo: Superstar. His latest book is Death, Taxes and Sports Whimsy, New England Patriots Whimsy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Intrigue, January 6, 2004

By 

William Ruehlmann (Norfolk, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Paid Companion of J. Wilkes Booth (Hardcover)

THE PAID COMPANION OF J. WILKES BOOTH weaves page-turning narrative from speculative history. Motion picture actor Jan Merlin adds dramatic spin to the dark facts of events surrounding the Lincoln assassination conspiracy provided by scholar and collaborator William Russo. It's a hair-raising account that, not unsurprisingly, moves like an action film.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WESTERN CLIPPINGS REVIEW!!!, January 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Paid Companion of J. Wilkes Booth (Paperback)

(Review by Terry Harris) Jan Merlin, the excellent character actor who appeared in numerous western movies and TV series, usually in villianous roles, is also an author who has written several books. His latest, with co-author William Russo, THE PAID COMPANION of J.Wilkes Booth, focuses on the life of Lewis Paine, the man who conspired with John Wilkes Booth to overthrow the Federal Government at the end of the Civil War. The novel deals with the events leading up to Paine's attempted assassination of Secretary of State William Seward, Paine's capture, trial, and execution by Federal authorities. What Merlin and Russo do so well is to take a potentially repugnant character, Lewis Paine, and present him in such a way the reader is rendered sympathetic to him. The Civil War and its effects on the teenage Paine make him an object of compassion. As Merlin says, "Slavery made him immoral, war made him a murderer, and necessity, revenge and delusion made him an assassin." In many ways, Paine is like us, except he was taught to believe things we know to be wrong, were right. The novel's searing indictment of the dehumanizing evil effects of a vicious Civil War onma a young man's psyche is compelling and sticks in your mind long after finishing the book. Highly recommended, deserves to be ranked among the best of Civil War novels.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense Historical Story!, November 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Paid Companion of J. Wilkes Booth (Paperback)

It is hard to believe that there could be a new look at the Lincoln Assassination after hundreds of books and 150 years after the event. However, these two writers have found a vein of storyline that has not been examined up to now. Because of their interest in this off-shoot of the Booth murder scheme, we can see some new possibilities in the facts. It may be that the prejudice and denial of a century has finally been lifted. Past historians and writers have ignored the bizarre sex life of Booth and how it shed light on his actions. In the past he was dismissed as a promiscuous actor, but this tale indicates a far darker personality--which was too difficult for past generations to accept. His manipulation of a Confederate deserter is nearly satanic in its power, but is definitely Machiavellian. To put the limelight on the least known of the Booth conspirators makes this a fascinating new look at the Lincoln murder plot. The intensity of the execution scene alone makes this a tour-de-force of literature.