My current nonfiction book is Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, which is a refreshingly original spin on American history. More interesting than the book itself is the accompanying cover.America of 1865 had no time to build up reputable schools of art study, and had no need to import Europeans for simple newspaper illustrations. The countless pictures preserved from that era were all drawn by Americans with a bit of natural talent and little else: perspectives are wrong, body positions are bizarre, and there’s that ‘not quite right’ feeling when studying them. The image used as the cover for Manhunt is such an illustration, and the inappropriate expression on poor Mr. Lincoln’s face is priceless. As a Deringer bullet entered his skull, the President likely didn’t wear an expression that read, ‘Sigh…I do not need this.’
The rest of his body is just as amusing, though the edition cited in the link obscures everything below the chest. A gun blast perpendicular to the head is powerful, but it’s not powerful enough to dislocate your arm and twist it 90°. Even if it were (Magic Bullet Theory, anyone?), it just makes Lincoln’s expression that much more incomprehensible.
‘Gosh, it’ll be off to the hospital for me, I guess. Oh, Booth, what will I do with you?’