Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism
Oct 2009 · Zondervan
3.8star
13 reviewsreport
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348
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About this ebook
Barbara Weisberg’s Talking to the Dead blends biography and social history in this revelatory story of the family responsible for the rise of Spiritualism.
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.
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.
Ratings and reviews
3.8
13 reviews
A Google user
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April 11, 2008
What a wonderful book, maybe I should have read this one before the Houdini one so they could be in sequence. Houdini and Doyle were mentioned in the last chapter but the main story of these interesting women is very well researched. The author did her best to balance her narrative. These sisters did what they had to do to survive in a man's world. Even though I don't condone their actions you have to admire them and feel sadness at their awful lives.
The author mentions Lilly Dale several times which is really cool as I've been there. Wish I had read this book first though. I also wish the author could have included more pictures of the people mentioned. She did a good job setting the story in events of antebellum America, war and post civil war. i had no idea that mediums were on par with prostitutes.
I also learned that "music could be used by the devil to incite carnal excitement as well as by that interest in Spiritualism was waining in America, her reason for this includes, raising life expectancy, women were given more opportunities for work and school, Spiritualists were not likely to organize, the excitement at the beginning lessened as technology increased and religion took on some aspects of spiritualism." (p. 261)
19-2007
Jessica Stewart
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July 23, 2013
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.
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