The best translations cannot convey to us the strength and exquisite delicacy of thought in its native garb, and he to whom such books are shut flounders about in outer darkness.

Influence on acting
Edwin's acting style was distinctly different from that of his father. A second play by the same name The Brothers Booth which focuses on "the world of the 1860s theatre and its leading family" was written by MarEdwin Boothll Bradley and staged in New York at the Perry Street Theatre in 2004. For comparison the family hoped to obtain DNA samples from artifacts belonging to John Wilkes such as vertebrae stored at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland.

In 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York a spectacular theatre that was quite modern for its time. Some theatrical historians consider him the greatest American actor and the greatest Hamlet of the 19th century.