Years ago, even before I came up with the idea for the Wain Society, I had made a connection in my mind between three men in history: Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen Foster, and John Wilkes Booth.
I don’t know why my mind made the connections but for some reason, I thought they were connected.
Later, when I studied the history, there seemed to be no connections between the three and I wondered why I had thought they had some bond between them.
And though the facts seemed to indicate otherwise, my mind still held to the idea. Poe was born in 1809 and died in 1849, when Foster was 23 and Booth was only 11. Any connection between them would have been a little bit of a stretch. After a time, I simply forgot about the matter.
Years later, doing research for my novel about the secretive Wains, one person I thought who seemed to embody many of the ideals of the group was Charles Dickens. The social crusader he was, as well as the train wreck that almost killed him, and his early death at age 58, all seemed perfect for a champion of this secret society.
And it was during my research of Dickens that I found an interesting set of “coincidences”.
In 1842, he made a journey across the pond to visit America. Here he stopped shortly to see an old friend from England who had immigrated several years before: Junius Booth, the actor. Then he journeyed to Philadelphia to meet with Edgar Allan Poe, whose works were bestsellers in Europe though kept him penniless here.
Amazingly, Dickens visit had borne a connection between two of the three characters already. But how could he possibly be connected to Foster? Hm, I read on.
Dickens tour of America took him westward as well and he visited Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While in western PA, he fell ill and was given aid and comfort by a very charitable Christian family there: the Fosters.
And so Dickens visit in 1842 brought the other three together. Sure, Wilkes Booth was a mere four years old at the time and Foster had just turned sixteen, but there was a connection.
Was there something more to this trail than we know about? I don’t know but I was writing fiction and the connection was good enough for the story.
Ah, but reality beckons with such tantalizing fragments where hunches lead to such serendipitous follies.
And that’s how conspiracy theories get formed.
the Wains 