Asia Booth

Who was Asia Booth?

Asia Frigga Clarke, was the youngest daughter in the family of ten children born to Junius Brutus Booth and his wife Mary Ann Holmes. Her famous brothers were Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth. Asia was named for the continent where her father thought the Garden of Eden had been located.

On April 28, 1859, Booth married John Sleeper Clarke at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland. The couple had eight children, two of whom, Creston and Wilfred, became actors. Because of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 by her brother John Wilkes Booth and the effect this had upon the family, she and her husband emigrated to England, where they remained.

Asia became the poet and writer in the family, and it is through her work that we are able to gain some insight into the lives of the Booths, particularly John Wilkes. The Unlocked Book, John Wilkes Booth, a Sister's Memoir was written in 1874, but she kept its existence secret, fearing it would upset her husband. He had been imprisoned and forced to testify at the trials of the co-conspirators because of his family connection.