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Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism Kindle Edition
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 eleven and fourteen—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 séances. 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.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperOne
- Publication dateOctober 13, 2009
- File size1854 KB
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About the Author
Barbara Weisberg has also written about the Fox sisters for American Heritage magazine. Formerly a freelance producer whose work has appeared on cable, network, and public television, she lives with her stepchildren and husband, writer and producer David Black, in New York City.
From The Washington Post
Modern readers may be surprised to learn how closely spiritualism (as the Fox sisters' practice came to be called) was allied with movements such as abolitionism and women's rights. Yet even into this century, the nutty and the progressive have often shared a bed. The area of New York State around Hydesville was the '60s San Francisco of its day, seething with utopian, socially experimental ways of living and daringly liberal politics. As in the '60s, participation was by no means limited to cranks. Frederick Douglass (on whom Maggie seems to have had a mild crush) attended seances. So did Poe's literary executor, Rufus Griswold, and Horace ("Go West, young man!") Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune.
It's easy today to sneer at spiritualism, and it was easy for many people then, too. But Weisberg's interest is in those who believed. The 19th century had its share of hellfire Christianity, but it was also when the idea of God as essentially a nice guy rather than a stern judge was beginning to take hold in the middle classes. Spiritualism went one step further: Though the movement sincerely espoused belief in the biblical deity, in practice He tended to slip out of the picture. None of the dead relatives contacted by the bereaved seemed to be in anything like hell -- or heaven, for that matter. They appeared to exist in a friendly, if rather bland, place. Spiritualism had created an afterlife without judgment or salvation or, by extension, God. The 19th century wasn't squeamish about death. There was a lot of it around, mostly among young children (There was almost no family in which at least one child didn't make it to adolescence.) Disease was often virulent. People died at home and were laid out in the parlor. As photography advanced, portraits of the dead in their coffins became a vogue. It was only a step from this homey attitude toward the deceased to attempting to contact them.
The era saw many mediums, but the Fox sisters were an uncharacteristically provocative phenomenon. Before performing in public, they were taken into private rooms, stripped and searched -- always by ladies, but the gentlemen waiting outside could visualize what was happening. And sometimes men tested the sisters by holding their ankles or arms. Young and virginal, Kate and Maggie nonetheless appeared on stage, usually the prerogative only of actresses, who were assumed to be little above prostitutes. This good-girl/bad-girl sexual aura seems to have been strong stuff.
So, how did the sisters fake it? Throughout their career, some skeptics postulated that Maggie and Kate were doing no more than cracking their unusually flexible joints to provide the coded messages from "beyond." This turned out to be the case. Still, for Weisberg and the reader, the question lingers: What was really going on in the sisters' minds? Were they only pranksters? Forty years is a long time to carry on a joke, even if you have been trapped by it. Con artists? They didn't make much money from their trade. Crazy? Both sisters suffered from terrible headaches and what, from the little evidence we have, might have been a mild manic-depressive syndrome, but they clearly weren't psychotic. At the end, they claimed they'd always been frauds, driven on by their exploitative older sister (and sometime mystic) Leah. Yet there are indications that something more complicated was going on, that at least at times they half-believed in the reality of the spirits whose appearances they were faking. Weisberg leaves that question, and its implications about the complexity of human motive, wisely open.
Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.
Product details
- ASIN : B0018ND86Q
- Publisher : HarperOne (October 13, 2009)
- Publication date : October 13, 2009
- Language : English
- File size : 1854 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 338 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #438,300 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #332 in Occult Spiritualism
- #357 in Religious Studies - History
- #1,092 in History eBooks of Women
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Barbara Weisberg's new book is STRONG PASSIONS: A SCANDALOUS DIVORCE IN OLD NEW YORK, for release by Norton in February 2024. It tells the true story of an explosive divorce trial in the 1860s that exposed upper-crust New York society and its secrets, shocking the public with reports of adultery, abortion, and child abduction, and highlighting women's rights issues still in the headlines today.
The author of TALKING TO THE DEAD: KATE AND MAGGIE FOX AND THE RISE OF SPIRITUALISM, a biography of the two founders of 19th century American Spiritualism, Weisberg has also written four children's books and many articles on science and history for young readers. In addition, she co-created the TV sitcom "Charles in Charge" and has produced other award-winning programs for network and cable television.
TALKING TO THE DEAD was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was recommended in the Paperback Row column of the New York Times. Her YA biography SUSAN B. ANTHONY: WOMAN SUFFRAGIST was praised by the Anthony Museum in Rochester, N.Y. as a "treasure...a favorite among our visitors,” and her picture book SPACE CREATURES was called "clever, enchantingly illustrated" by Kirkus Reviews.
Weisberg earned her M.Phil. in American Studies at Yale University and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Brooklyn College, where she was awarded the MacArthur Scholarship in Poetry on the nomination of Allen Ginsberg. The Parapsychology Foundation awarded her the D. Scott Rogo Award for her research on Spiritualism, and the American Antiquarian Society awarded her the Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Grant for Creative Writers and Artists to pursue her work on the Fox sisters. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America, Biographers International, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Authors Guild.
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Customers find the book provides accurate historical information about séances and their history. However, some readers found the book boring and difficult to read. Opinions are mixed on readability - some find it worth reading from cover to cover, while others felt it was poorly written with hard-to-read typeface and tight margins.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book informative and interesting. They appreciate the accurate historical context and well-researched account of the Fox sisters. The subject is fascinating and well-told, setting the tone for the historical context.
"...Overall this book is well written and historically accurate. It is an interesting read for both the amateur and professional historian...." Read more
"Intriguing and accessible, this well researched account of the Fox sisters places the sisterly duo in the middle of the religious and feminist..." Read more
"...It's written in a lively "voice" and draws a clear picture of the times and people involved...." Read more
"...All in all, it gives one pause and something to consider." Read more
Customers have different views on the book's readability. Some find it engaging and well-written, while others mention issues like hard-to-read typeface, tight margins, and formatting issues.
"...It’s an easy read about the Fox sisters in upstate NY." Read more
"Not well written. Lost interest midway" Read more
"...Overall this book is well written and historically accurate. It is an interesting read for both the amateur and professional historian...." Read more
"...The details of the "methods" of the mediums are a particularly fun read...." Read more
Customers find the book boring and difficult to read.
"This book is so boring, I refused to even finish reading it. I am an avid reader, and this was one of the worst ever." Read more
"...I could not finish reading it. It got boring pretty quickly. Goes into the next garage sale." Read more
"I didn't finish the story. It reads more like a boring documentary. Don't bother. Just a waste of your time." Read more
"Gave up 32% in. Boring and a struggle to read." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2024I find this book fascinating because I love history—and have a love for spirituality and the “unknown”. I am also fascinated by New York history—this book brings together all my interests. I heard about it when visiting Casadaga FL and knew I needed to read this book! It’s an easy read about the Fox sisters in upstate NY.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2015The spiritualist movement of the 19th century was the beginning of America's obsession with the occult. While the psychics, and ghost hunters of today are often looked upon as frauds and con artists the spiritualists of the 19th century were often looked upon as celebrities. They traveled first class on trains and ocean liners, stayed in luxury hotels, and were hailed as proof that the afterlife existed. But, underneath it all they were as much frauds and hacks as the so-called psychics of today. The Fox Sisters were among the most well-known spiritualists of the day and interacted with celebrities such as, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the members of various scientific societies that also flourished during the same period.
Weisberg eloquently writers about both the tragedy, and the fame and fortune experienced by all three Fox sisters. She links the spiritualist movement to many of the other popular movements of the day and uses descriptive language to tell the reader about a time in history when occultism and scientific pursuits existed hand in hand.
Overall this book is well written and historically accurate. It is an interesting read for both the amateur and professional historian. There are some minor formatting and grammar issues and in some places there are citations lacking but in general this is a good book.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2013Intriguing and accessible, this well researched account of the Fox sisters places the sisterly duo in the middle of the religious and feminist controversies of the time. The details of the "methods" of the mediums are a particularly fun read. And the author's even-handed approach to the quests of the participants in the spiritualist movement allows for readers to draw their own conclusions. It is a delight to read such an engaging and controversial story presented without bias.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2018Certainly not a gripping tale. It was none the less interesting in parts. Some parts of the book were predictable and other parts were very repetitive . All in all, it was an reasonable, entertaining read
- Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2017I really enjoyed this book. It's written in a lively "voice" and draws a clear picture of the times and people involved. It drags a bit about 3/4 of the way in, but if you can get past that, it's worth reading from cover to cover. Excellent history told without bias.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2021Very interesting book about the fox sisters in New York
- Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2023Not well written. Lost interest midway
- Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2013This book is so boring, I refused to even finish reading it. I am an avid reader, and this was one of the worst ever.
Top reviews from other countries
- mr aeburneReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars ABOUT 3 MEDIUMS
WELL WRITTEN VERY GOOD BOOK 10/10
- Jason CuthbertReviewed in Canada on June 26, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars This is exactly what I wanted.
It arrived in fantastic condition.
- noel w adamsReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 20, 2014
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read for all Spiritualists
Was good to read all information relating to the Fox family. Little details missed before now brought foreword make the history a lot more true.
- lee-ellen bakerReviewed in Canada on June 19, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Good read
- ⚡ Fiona ⚡Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 29, 2009
5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, really fascinating insight into Victorian spiritualism.
You will love this book if you are interested in spiritualism- contacting ghosts, seances etc - and you will love it even more if you are interested in Victorian spiritualism.
This book tells the true life story of two sisters, Kate and Maggie Fox, who as teenagers claimed they could contact spirits. Their story brought them fame, notoriety and even caused them depression later on in life.
I actually read this book because I am fascinated by spirits, but I found myself really captivated by the stories of these two sisters, of their life back in the 1800s and the sad things that happened to them.
This book is amazing, the author keeps it ineresting and well paced. It does have some eerie accounts of when they contacted spirits, but also some heart-breaking moments where these two young women went through some tough times.
I can't even begin to get across how great this book is. You can't go wrong. Read it, you won't be disappointed.