Excerpt from Edwin Booth: Recollections by His Daughter, Edwina Booth Grossmann and Leters to Her and to His FriendsOne Of my first recollections is that Of feeling myself tenderly placed in my little crib by my father, on his returning late at night from the play, and finding, as he afterward related, his baby lying asleep on the ¿oor. Vividly I recall one Christmas morning, when, on awakening, full of joyful anticipations, I crept out of bed to find my stockings generously filled with toys, and, hang ing near by, my father's socks containing only his razors, shaving-brushes, and other small accesso ries Of his toilet. I was disappointed almost to tears by Santa Claus's neglect of so good a father, but my father kissed away the water-drops, with a merry laugh, which I can hear to this day. He had been quietly watching me, enjoying his little Christmas deception.Although his natural melancholy undoubtedly had its effect upon my early years, yet he always endeavored to throw aside the gloom which had settled upon his life, and would assume a gentle gaiety, - never boisterous, - in order to amuse and divert my solitary hours. In him I felt such Close companionship that, although without brothers and sisters, a sense Of my own loneliness did not Op press me so much as the solitude Of my father, which to my childish imagination seemed strange and unnatural. I recall his moving me to tears by quoting to me Tennyson's verses, What does little birdie say? - the first poetry I ever heard him recite.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.