Talking to the Dead : Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism
Author(s): Barbara Weisberg
A fascinating story of spirits and conjurors, skeptics and converts in the second half of nineteenth century America viewed through the lives of Kate and Maggie Fox, the sisters whose purported communication with the dead gave rise to the Spiritualism movement - and whose recanting forty years later is still shrouded in mystery.
In March of 1848, Kate and Maggie Fox - sisters aged 11 and 14 - anxiously reported to a neighbor that they had been hearing strange, unidentified sounds in their house. From a sequence of knocks and rattles translated by the young girls as a "voice from beyond," the Modern Spiritualism movement was born.
Talking to the Dead follows the fascinating story of the two girls who were catapulted into an odd limelight after communicating with spirits that March night. Within a few years, tens of thousands of Americans were flocking to seances. An international movement followed. Yet thirty years after those first knocks, the sisters shocked the country by denying they had ever contacted spirits. Shortly after, the sisters once again changed their story and reaffirmed their belief in the spirit world. Weisberg traces not only the lives of the Fox sisters and their family (including their mysterious Svengali-like sister Leah) but also the social, religious, economic and political climates that provided the breeding ground for the movement. While this is a thorough, compelling overview of a potent time in US history, it is also an incredible ghost story.
An entertaining read - a story of spirits and conjurors, skeptics and converts - Talking to the Dead is full of emotion and surprise. Yet it will also provoke questions that were being asked in the 19th century, and are still being asked today - how do we know what we know, and how secure are we in our knowledge?
Review(s):
“[An] engaging study…[a] lively tale of a little-known slice of American history.”
“Weisberg…seamlessly tells the Foxes’ story within the context of geographic and religious influences as well as national events”
“A wide-ranging account....Well-grounded social history.”
“Barbara Weisberg raises the specter of two winsome adolescent sisters who convinced America they were Talking to the Dead.”
“Weisberg goes beyond stereotypes…A revealing look at the history of spiritualism and its place in nineteenth-century culture.
“Weisberg captures the essence of that era in this gracefully written scholarly biography.”
“…vividly brings alive one of America’s most fascinating historical eras. This book is a fine read and an excellent reference.”
“Fascinating…an excellent history of spiritualism in America.”
“The reach of this story is extraordinary. A fabulous read.”
“Talking to the Dead takes you on a thrilling ride....you are sure to be mesmerized.”
ISBN: 9780060750602