Acting President

...She "died" by traveling in disguise to Europe-Booth's idea, naturally Then Weed, who would have done anything to be rid of Booth, collaborated with the actor by quietly informing Arthur of his wife's desertion and urging him not to expose the ruse to the public Inadvertently, Arthur upset the well-laid plan He collapsed and died' Booth, rather than following Nell abroad, could not pass up the opportunity to play the boards, he became Chester A Arthur The challenge was irresistible...

...Contemporary readers who have grown callous to an actor as President, to his casual disregard for fact and his infatuation with role, will nevertheless be astounded at Booth's imagination and audacity as chief of state And perhaps not a little disturbed Wiegand's frolic with the past is haunting in the present Is it too far-fetched to wonder whether Ronald Reagan is, in reality-Lee Harvey Oswald...

...Yet Booth, ever the actor, soon reappeared in New York as a waiter at Delmonico's and as Nell's lover, secure in the knowledge that his diary was still among the Stanton papers after the untimely passing of their possessor Weed's effort to wipe him out failed, while Booth made Nell privy to his secret and therefore a security against his enemies Her object was marriage to him, and she was willing to die for her goal Despite her distaste for Booth's role playing, she was as single-minded in her desire for a life together as he was to vindicate his murder of Lincoln as an act of war and to revive the Confederacy (we see a few convincing displays of his monomania...

...Like all postwar Republicans of prominence, Chester A Arthur was a general in the Union Army He gave up his commission to take charge of the New York customs house, a notoriously lucrative post even in that graft-ridden age Chosen the Vice-Presidential candidate in 1880 to appease the stalwart faction of the GOP, Arthur succeeded to the White House when James A Garfield was fatally shot by a disappointed office seeker The new President proceeded to amaze friends, foes and historians by backing civil service reform...

...Acting President The Chester A. Arthur Conspiracy By William Wiegand Dial 446 pp $16 95 Reviewed by Joseph E. Illick Professor of History, San Francisco State University Our very obscure 21st President hardly seems a likely subject for fiction, though historians have doubtless left an open field for novelists "There is no drearier chapter in American politics," reads a typical textbook, "than that which records the period from the end of Reconstruction to the Populist revolt of the early '90s " William Wiegand's account of this era is the opposite of dreary, it is by turns lively and fascinating, droll and ironic, both plausible history and delightful fantasy...

...Four years later Booth, thought to have been killed shortly after the assassination, was still living in disguise on the Herndon place in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where Nell and her son Alan often visited The actor was safe from-in fact, protected by-Weed and company so long as the pages of his diary implicating the New Yorkers in the assassination remained in the possession of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton But when Weed secured Stanton a Supreme Court appointment on the understanding that the diary would be given in exchange, Booth was in danger Arthur was quick to warn him that he had better disappear for good, not exactly an altruistic move since the Yankee politician vaguely realized that his Southern wife was being wooed by another...

...Roscoe Conkling, who as Arthur's New York cohort in corruption had seen enough to justify alarm, exclaimed at the news of Garfield's death "My God, Chet Arthur President1" Little did Conkling know, as Wiegand now informs us, that Arthur was dead and the man who assumed the helm was none other than John Wilkes Booth It may sound like hokum, but do we have a better explanation of Arthur's political transformation7 Indeed, dull though the postwar period may be, its origins in the assassination of Lincoln and the attempt on the life of Secretary of State William H Seward have always provoked speculation of a plot Wiegand has chosen his piece of the past well...

...The tale begins at home Nell Arthur, Chester's wife and a Virginian, was not happily married and she would not let Chet forget it While he was placating her he was also trying to please high-ranking New York Republicans, most notably Thurlow Weed, whose hostility to Lincoln apparently led him into a conspiracy with John Wilkes Booth Chet took Nell to see Booth perform ("Now is the winter of our discontent"), was later introduced to him by Weed and finally traveled south to deliver the assassin incognito to Nell's physician cousins so that his leg, broken when he leaped from Lincoln's box in Ford's Theater, might be set...

...Thus we find ourselves, credulous, a quarter of the way into a novel that continues to lead us on at its sometimes dizzying pace Wiegand has done major research in late 19th-century American history, as is evident in his use of language, creation of atmosphere and evocation of character The result, though, is not a period piece, it is a lively narrative replete with unexpected coincidences and ever-fresh surprises Wiegand skillfully blends such major events as the Republican national convention of 1880 with the imagined happenings of Booth-cum-Arthur's personal life...