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Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism
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.
338 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
July 17, 2014
This is an excellent biography of the Fox sisters, Maggie and Kate, as well as the Spiritualist movement they headlined in the United States in the middle of the 19th century. In addition to providing the story of the girls' arrival on what would be their stage, the author uses a wide variety of sources to follow their lives into their active teen age years and on into their more controversial adult years. Along the way, we meet the other members of their family, including fellow medium Leah, various supporters around the United States who both came to see them in New York and invited them into their own homes and cities. We meet those who doubted or despised their beliefs and techniques and we are left with many answers and still more questions.
One point the author makes that spoke to me is that the United States was in the midst of significant transition during the time that the Fox sisters lived and Weisberg wonders about this.
And perhaps change itself is what makes the story resonate,
at least for me: the devices we use or the the faith we rely
on to ease anxiety in periods of significant transition.
Everyone in the saga of the Fox sisters was in motion in one
way or another: progressing, passing from childhood to
adulthood; from sinner to saint; from lower to upper class;
from an agricultural society to a commercial and industrial
one; from life to death to eternity. The children, Kate and
Maggie, represented and embodied these many different and
overlapping transitions, as did the spirits for whom they
claimed to speak. (loc 4454)
I heartily recommend this to anyone interested in 19th century history, the history of religions, spirituality, death and dying.
One point the author makes that spoke to me is that the United States was in the midst of significant transition during the time that the Fox sisters lived and Weisberg wonders about this.
And perhaps change itself is what makes the story resonate,
at least for me: the devices we use or the the faith we rely
on to ease anxiety in periods of significant transition.
Everyone in the saga of the Fox sisters was in motion in one
way or another: progressing, passing from childhood to
adulthood; from sinner to saint; from lower to upper class;
from an agricultural society to a commercial and industrial
one; from life to death to eternity. The children, Kate and
Maggie, represented and embodied these many different and
overlapping transitions, as did the spirits for whom they
claimed to speak. (loc 4454)
I heartily recommend this to anyone interested in 19th century history, the history of religions, spirituality, death and dying.
April 27, 2021
Non-fiction. read on Kindle. So good not sure I can begin to describe. The origins of the Spiritualism movement in the United States: Mediums, Talking to spirits, how the movement came about, its connection to the sisters Fox and possible origins. Political connection, how the times influenced the believers and so much more. I started reading this book as research for a writing project and at first felt it was too focused on just these two young women but as the story continued I found what a fascinating and great job this author did. A fabulous fascinating story that poses many interesting questions. The historical connections with woman suffrage, abolition, Civil War and the need by so many to reach out to lost love ones. A really intriguing look at an important era and phenomena of U.S. history and one I'll be thinking about and am so glad I read.
November 20, 2015
This book was at intervals thought provoking, and dull. The rise of Spiritualism is a fascinating topic, as it seems like it was cushioned between very structured Calvinist dogma and then the evangelical outbreak. Humanity was standing on the precipice of modernity, and when we looked to the future we could hardly tell the difference between science and magic. Both Tesla and Edison tried to create scientific means of contact the dead, believing that “piercing the veil” could hardly be different than the eventual rise of radio waves and telegraphs. And there was so much death during the lives of the Fox sisters, death rates for children were high, the Civil War touched everyone, a risk of infection of sickness was ever present throughout lives. Everyone lost, and lost so much, in ways that are even barely conceivable in the modern world. They were constantly surrounded by death, but that doesn’t mean that they did not equally long for those that they had lost, and it meant that they necessarily had to meditate on their own mortality. Enter the Fox sisters- two beautiful, painfully charismatic girls that offered a promise of communication and hope. For decades they were the face of the Spiritualist movement, holding séances of increasing wonder, and communing with the dead for thousands. They were so enigmatic and shrouded in mystery that Horace Greeley, presidents, even a Czar of Russia consulted with them.
That sounds fascinating, right? There was SO much happening in this time period, so how did this book turn out to only be three stars? Well, I felt that the author missed opportunity after opportunity to delve deeper into the questions that she seemed to pose only by accident. We only had a short paragraph on one of the sisters going to Russia to consult the Czar- what happened there? Who knows, because it isn’t covered in the book despite that travelling there must have been quite the culture shock to an American at the time. I could have used a whole chapter on Tesla and Edison trying to communicate with the dead to reinforce that the Spiritualist movement was mainstream, I would have loved to read more about how science and spiritualism interacted. There was almost no continuity of time in the book, the author did not do enough to reinforce how time was flowing throughout the narrative, one day the girls were 15 and the next they were 40. There were many passages discussing the strong abolitionist sense of many Northern mediums, but then failed to mention if there were any Southern mediums, how the dichotomy of North vs. South affected Spiritualism… was it mainly a Northern affair? And only offhandedly did the author mention that some mediums were not sure that Africans really had enough strength of soul to linger on a communicative plain with mediums. What? Lets go into that more! These are ideas that were integral to the identity of the nation and its people, and so would have been integral to Spiritualism, and yet we don’t really get to hear much about what Spiritualism or the Fox sisters felt about it.
Most frustratingly at no point did I feel involved in the narrative. It just sort of happened, with no involvement of the reader. The author stayed objective, questioning the Fox’s motives and relations to their own movement, and that was good, but I never felt consumed by the magic or the farse of what was happening. Each time I wanted to know more, the narrative stopped and switched. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone unless you are already interested in the subject or time period.
That sounds fascinating, right? There was SO much happening in this time period, so how did this book turn out to only be three stars? Well, I felt that the author missed opportunity after opportunity to delve deeper into the questions that she seemed to pose only by accident. We only had a short paragraph on one of the sisters going to Russia to consult the Czar- what happened there? Who knows, because it isn’t covered in the book despite that travelling there must have been quite the culture shock to an American at the time. I could have used a whole chapter on Tesla and Edison trying to communicate with the dead to reinforce that the Spiritualist movement was mainstream, I would have loved to read more about how science and spiritualism interacted. There was almost no continuity of time in the book, the author did not do enough to reinforce how time was flowing throughout the narrative, one day the girls were 15 and the next they were 40. There were many passages discussing the strong abolitionist sense of many Northern mediums, but then failed to mention if there were any Southern mediums, how the dichotomy of North vs. South affected Spiritualism… was it mainly a Northern affair? And only offhandedly did the author mention that some mediums were not sure that Africans really had enough strength of soul to linger on a communicative plain with mediums. What? Lets go into that more! These are ideas that were integral to the identity of the nation and its people, and so would have been integral to Spiritualism, and yet we don’t really get to hear much about what Spiritualism or the Fox sisters felt about it.
Most frustratingly at no point did I feel involved in the narrative. It just sort of happened, with no involvement of the reader. The author stayed objective, questioning the Fox’s motives and relations to their own movement, and that was good, but I never felt consumed by the magic or the farse of what was happening. Each time I wanted to know more, the narrative stopped and switched. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone unless you are already interested in the subject or time period.
June 17, 2014
This is a marvelous example of what good history can do: putting bits of things one might (or might not) already know into a useful context.
I've known about the Fox sisters and the rapping they introduced from whence seances and Spiritualism both developed. I knew they were young, that the rapping sound started at night while they were in bed, and that the sounds were eventually credited to knuckle-popping of the toes. Now because of when I first read about them, I pictured them as Laura and Mary Ingalls. What I didn't know is everything else in this book: the background of the family, how an older sister would also have a career as a medium, why their mother took them on the road, how many people in early Spiritualism were also involved in other progressive issues such as women's rights and abolition...just so much.
Weisberg does a marvelous job of sifting through all the documentation, all the newspaper reports and books and diaries and letters for the illuminating quote. Altogether she covers fifty or so years (more time spent on the early, rather than the later), and manages to convey both their lives as celebrities and their personal relationships. It's a weird and fascinating story with some odd addenda, well-told.
Gift copy for Kindle.
I've known about the Fox sisters and the rapping they introduced from whence seances and Spiritualism both developed. I knew they were young, that the rapping sound started at night while they were in bed, and that the sounds were eventually credited to knuckle-popping of the toes. Now because of when I first read about them, I pictured them as Laura and Mary Ingalls. What I didn't know is everything else in this book: the background of the family, how an older sister would also have a career as a medium, why their mother took them on the road, how many people in early Spiritualism were also involved in other progressive issues such as women's rights and abolition...just so much.
Weisberg does a marvelous job of sifting through all the documentation, all the newspaper reports and books and diaries and letters for the illuminating quote. Altogether she covers fifty or so years (more time spent on the early, rather than the later), and manages to convey both their lives as celebrities and their personal relationships. It's a weird and fascinating story with some odd addenda, well-told.
Gift copy for Kindle.
March 1, 2019
"There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them."- Charles Caleb Colton
The spiritualist movement began in upstate New York in a small house, that was forty miles outside of Rochester. When the Fox family moved in, they had heard about the “haunted” history of the house from their neighbors. The people who lived there before had possibly murdered a traveling salesman and buried him under the house. The story keeps getting stranger and what happens to this particular family is the basis of the book.
The family had originally lived in Bath, Canada, when the father, John Fox, who was a Goldsmith, began to gamble and lost his money. His marriage to his wife, Margaret Smith Fox, was going downhill. He decided to move his wife and three daughters (Leah, Margaret (Maggie) and Kate) to the U.S.A. and bought a farm in 1841. In 1848, when the youngest girls were still nine and eleven, they reported to their parents that there was strange knocking/rapping in the house. They claimed they could ask the spirit who they called “Mr. Splitfoot” questions and they would hear the raps as answers. Eventually they became a local sensation. The oldest daughter, Leah, who was 27 when they first moved into the house also claimed she was a medium.
This was the beginning of the “spiritualist movement” and as the girls grew older, they claimed that they could talk to the dead anywhere they lived. They become very famous, held many seances, made a lot of money and traveled the world. The oldest sister Leah, began to manage both Maggie and Kate, charging a dollar a person for their seances. All three sisters married and had families. Maggie's husband never believed his wife was a medium and begged her to recant. Over the years, she eventually became a Catholic and left the Spiritualist movement. When her husband died, she began to drink very heavily and had a falling out with the oldest sister Leah over her lack of care for her children. Maggie dropped a bomb on the family when she denounced spiritualism to the public (for money) and that all three were frauds. She and her sister Kate could crack their toe and ankle joints to make the rapping noises.
She recanted a year later but it was too late. Kate also began to drink and all three sisters died within a short time of one another. Leah, the oldest sister, seemed to escape somewhat in the later years and the author questions if she was not running the show from the beginning.
This excellent well-researched book is the story of their lives and it eventually becomes very sad indeed. The area they lived in was know for religious reform and people wanted to reach out to their departed loved ones. Both Mormonism and Seventh-Day Adventist were started in Upstate New York. This area was called “The Burnt-Over District” because of what is called the Second Great Awakening, a heated Protestant religious revival. The three sisters took advantage of people's loss and sorrow for money. People wanted to believe they could communicate with their loved ones especially after the Civil War.
One of the saddest moments in the book was when you realize the cost that the fraud cost the entire family. Their father and mother never recovered their marriage and the sisters stopped speaking to each other towards the end of their lives. This book will give the reader a glimpse of a strange period in American history and the rise of the early 19th century movement of Spiritualism.
The spiritualist movement began in upstate New York in a small house, that was forty miles outside of Rochester. When the Fox family moved in, they had heard about the “haunted” history of the house from their neighbors. The people who lived there before had possibly murdered a traveling salesman and buried him under the house. The story keeps getting stranger and what happens to this particular family is the basis of the book.
The family had originally lived in Bath, Canada, when the father, John Fox, who was a Goldsmith, began to gamble and lost his money. His marriage to his wife, Margaret Smith Fox, was going downhill. He decided to move his wife and three daughters (Leah, Margaret (Maggie) and Kate) to the U.S.A. and bought a farm in 1841. In 1848, when the youngest girls were still nine and eleven, they reported to their parents that there was strange knocking/rapping in the house. They claimed they could ask the spirit who they called “Mr. Splitfoot” questions and they would hear the raps as answers. Eventually they became a local sensation. The oldest daughter, Leah, who was 27 when they first moved into the house also claimed she was a medium.
This was the beginning of the “spiritualist movement” and as the girls grew older, they claimed that they could talk to the dead anywhere they lived. They become very famous, held many seances, made a lot of money and traveled the world. The oldest sister Leah, began to manage both Maggie and Kate, charging a dollar a person for their seances. All three sisters married and had families. Maggie's husband never believed his wife was a medium and begged her to recant. Over the years, she eventually became a Catholic and left the Spiritualist movement. When her husband died, she began to drink very heavily and had a falling out with the oldest sister Leah over her lack of care for her children. Maggie dropped a bomb on the family when she denounced spiritualism to the public (for money) and that all three were frauds. She and her sister Kate could crack their toe and ankle joints to make the rapping noises.
She recanted a year later but it was too late. Kate also began to drink and all three sisters died within a short time of one another. Leah, the oldest sister, seemed to escape somewhat in the later years and the author questions if she was not running the show from the beginning.
This excellent well-researched book is the story of their lives and it eventually becomes very sad indeed. The area they lived in was know for religious reform and people wanted to reach out to their departed loved ones. Both Mormonism and Seventh-Day Adventist were started in Upstate New York. This area was called “The Burnt-Over District” because of what is called the Second Great Awakening, a heated Protestant religious revival. The three sisters took advantage of people's loss and sorrow for money. People wanted to believe they could communicate with their loved ones especially after the Civil War.
One of the saddest moments in the book was when you realize the cost that the fraud cost the entire family. Their father and mother never recovered their marriage and the sisters stopped speaking to each other towards the end of their lives. This book will give the reader a glimpse of a strange period in American history and the rise of the early 19th century movement of Spiritualism.
December 28, 2012
Interesting subject, utterly dull execution. I was so excited to read this and it took me over two months to slog through it. Far too many stories about people the Fox sisters encountered that didn't serve to enhance the narrative. Hopefully someone soon will write a better book on these fascinating women.
October 18, 2013
ENTERTAINING AND INFORMATIVE
“In western New York, the time was always right for a new philosophy, theory, controversy, or utopia.”—page 45
Of course, it's bunkum. But, it's engagingly interesting, informative, table-knocking, spirit-rapping, toe-popping, entertaining bunkum—appropriate to the Halloween season.
Coming from a most interesting time and place—close to the peak of the Second Great Awakening, in the heart of the Burned-over District of western New York state, and with an exciting cast of ambience characters such as Frederick Douglass, P. T. Barnum, Jenny Lind, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Horace Greeley, to name a few—TALKING TO THE DEAD: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism, by Barbara Weisberg, documents the birth of Spiritualism in American; and is genuinely: "[An] engaging study... [A] lively tale of a little known slice of American history."—Publisher’s Weekly
For instance: Did you know that the first-ever woman candidate for president of the United States was a Spiritualist? Victoria Woodhull (Equal Rights Party), 1872. (Google it.). Or, that her running mate was the very first African American to be nominated for Vice President? None other than Frederick Douglass, himself.
I couldn't possibly have slept through enough history classes to have missed all of that, could I? And, yet, I didn't know any of it.
Recommendation: A far better, more readable, enjoyable, and enlightening tale than I'd expected; TALKING TO THE DEAD should catch the fancy of most eclectic history buffs. It caught mine. (But, then, come to think of it, I enjoyed reading about The Great Molasses Flood of 1919, too; so perhaps my vote shouldn't count.)
"Looking at the Fox Sisters' story is like peering through a kaleidoscope: the configuration is never fixed; it changes depending on the angle of the prism and the way the pieces seem to fall."—page 268
Adobe Digital [ePub] Edition, 327 pages
“In western New York, the time was always right for a new philosophy, theory, controversy, or utopia.”—page 45
Of course, it's bunkum. But, it's engagingly interesting, informative, table-knocking, spirit-rapping, toe-popping, entertaining bunkum—appropriate to the Halloween season.
Coming from a most interesting time and place—close to the peak of the Second Great Awakening, in the heart of the Burned-over District of western New York state, and with an exciting cast of ambience characters such as Frederick Douglass, P. T. Barnum, Jenny Lind, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Horace Greeley, to name a few—TALKING TO THE DEAD: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism, by Barbara Weisberg, documents the birth of Spiritualism in American; and is genuinely: "[An] engaging study... [A] lively tale of a little known slice of American history."—Publisher’s Weekly
For instance: Did you know that the first-ever woman candidate for president of the United States was a Spiritualist? Victoria Woodhull (Equal Rights Party), 1872. (Google it.). Or, that her running mate was the very first African American to be nominated for Vice President? None other than Frederick Douglass, himself.
I couldn't possibly have slept through enough history classes to have missed all of that, could I? And, yet, I didn't know any of it.
Recommendation: A far better, more readable, enjoyable, and enlightening tale than I'd expected; TALKING TO THE DEAD should catch the fancy of most eclectic history buffs. It caught mine. (But, then, come to think of it, I enjoyed reading about The Great Molasses Flood of 1919, too; so perhaps my vote shouldn't count.)
"Looking at the Fox Sisters' story is like peering through a kaleidoscope: the configuration is never fixed; it changes depending on the angle of the prism and the way the pieces seem to fall."—page 268
Adobe Digital [ePub] Edition, 327 pages
November 2, 2012
Whether they were real or a hoax, this book is a fascinating read. Spiritualism was popular during the 1800s and many famous people such as Mary Lincoln followed the movement. I was amazed to read how many followers they had.
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February 18, 2018I'm not giving this a star rating because I only got about 1/3 of the way through. It's not that it's not a good book but that it wasn't quite what I was looking for. I picked up the book initially to learn about spiritualism because I have a character in a historical mystery novel that is a sort of spiritualist so I wanted to learn a bit about spiritualism in America. But from my reading of the book so far, it was mainly focused on the experiences of Kate and Maggie Fox which didn't quite fit what I was looking for. Maybe later on the book gets more into spiritualism in America in general. Also, I found myself very sensitive to the rather graphic descriptions of the spirit communications. I literally could not read the book after dark and had some creepy feelings there. I don't think it would bother most people but it did bother me. So I just couldn't go on with it. Not to say I wouldn't recommend it for anyone looking to read about the Fox sisters or spiritualism in America in the 19th century but it just wasn't for me.
November 18, 2020
I had read about the Fox sisters in other books, including Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon (which the author mentioned herein). What I really liked about this book is the way the author described the social, political, and religious environment of the times that provided a perfect growing medium for the spiritualist movement, for which the Fox girls were almost single-handedly responsible. The sisters were so young when they started duping people with their toe-join-snapping rap (they were the first “rappers.” LOL)! It’s incredible that as adolescents they could figure out how to maintain and grow a deception that passed the scrutiny of countless investigations and pulled in believers ranging from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Carl Jung. They gave rise to thousands of mediums across the country and the world, hundreds of thousands of believers in communicating with the dead, and societies as dedicated as any church. Their older sister, a schemer and spiritualist in her own right, had a hand in the misery of their adult lives while their mother sweetly enabled and their father largely ignored the entire family. They each died lonely and penniless. Both were prone to migraine headaches and alcoholism. Both were disappointed in love and taken advantage of by schemers. A sad tale!
April 26, 2023
A thought-provoking book about a curious time: I appreciate how Ms. Weisberg wove the story of the two sisters into the broader history of the period. Were these girls frauds or founders of a movement, we'll never know, but if you are interested in learning more about the Fox Sisters & the times they lived in, this is the book for you.
November 29, 2020
ugh the tragedy of the fox sisters. you girls are misunderstood but i see you!!!!
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August 25, 2021Superb biography of the two "spiritualist" Fox sisters-- one of my favorite reads this year. Weisberg's compassion for these two mysterious girls turned mediums shines, plus an incredible cast of characters (incuding Frederick Douglas) make appearances.
October 2, 2024
Well-written, fairly balanced and intriguing account of the lives of the enigmatic Fox sisters and their effect on the burgeoning Spiritualist movement in 19th century middle-class America and beyond.
November 23, 2016
I asked these spirit figures if I was seeing them or if I was seeing what was in my own brain. They answered, "both." - Ellen Garrett, twentieth-century medium
Since one of my last reads was Richard Matheson’s Hell House (where mental and physical mediums were leading characters), it seemed like a really good time to dive into Barbara Weisberg’s Talking to the Dead, a biography of two of America’s most famous psychic mediums Kate and Maggie Fox. The two girls, who began manifesting “spirit raps” at age eleven and fourteen in their upstate New York home, captivated the country with their séances, otherworldly communications, and temptingly scandalous behavior. In addition to spurring the American Spiritualist movement, the two girls (and older sister Leah) pretty much bewitched the public in the 1800s – which either adored or abhorred the girls –think Civil War-era Lindsay Lohans.
In tracing of the girls’ rise to prominence, Weisburg’s account is painstakingly detailed; the book offering both a well-researched account of the growth of the Spiritualist movement alongside a compelling biography of the lives of the Fox sisters and their close relations. And while the account is as detailed as can be expected, the major negative is that much of the Fox sisters’ original correspondence has been lost and there’s only a few rare moments where the wit and character of the girls is recorded firsthand. Where Weisberg is able to quote the Fox sisters directly, the reader can easily feel the pull of their spell. Maggie’s repartee and ill-fated romance with the Arctic explorer Elisha Kent Kane, for example, is both charming and tragic.
In fact, it’s hard to ignore the parallels between the lives of the Fox sisters and many a modern young starlet. The girls alluring beauty and psychic powers were a killer combination -- bringing them fame and the attention of a number of (mostly male) patrons. But notoriety, entrée into the social elite, and a tempting glimpse into a lavish, upper crust lifestyle came with many of the same thorns that flaw the modern Hollywood rose – exploitation, paparazzi, alcohol, and drugs -- as the girls’ reputations were both enhanced and soiled – and interminably linked – to their “tainted” profession. It’s the old sexist adage that while everyone may want to party with bad girls, no one wants to bring them home to momma.
The other major theme is certainly the question of whether the Fox sisters actually did speak with the dead or they were some of the best hucksters of their generation? With the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to not assume a degree of chicanery – if not outright fraud – existed. However, even if the girls were blatant con-women, like Weisburg I still can’t help but admire them and sympathize with how it all turned out. Three waifs from an unassuming home rising to national prominence on the basis of their own smarts and self-promotion at a time when most women were relegated to housekeeping – there is certainly gumption and intelligence aplenty as the sisters threw their weight against the walls of a very sexist society to claw out their own place.
Unfortunately, like most Hollywood stories, the ending is (at best) bittersweet. Despite their talents, the girls are not inured to loss and weep just as gloomily for passed loves as those who sought the girls' psychic assistance. As Maggie laments to a New York Herald reporter, “Why I have explored the unknown as far as human will can. I have gone to the dead so that I might get from them some little token. Nothing came of it – nothing, nothing.”
The pain is profound. The girl who speaks to the dead … hears only silence.
August 7, 2013
Still probably the best biography of the Fox Sisters out there. This scrupulously researched book presents a sceptical but deeply sympathetic view of these two controversial figures. While the girls have been variously painted as stone cold frauds by some and martyrs to a cause by others, Weisberg's book is refreshing in that it treats its subjects simply as people.
This book paints a vivid picture of the early spiritualist movement, with its roots in the women's movement, abolition and non-conformist religion. It explores the various seductions of the séance room - the promise of power, of financial independence and perhaps a glimmer of certainty in the turbulent times of the American Civil War.
It also goes into the dark side of spiritualism, particularly in the case of the sensitive, affectionate Kate Fox, who lived much of her life being treated as a cipher or a conduit to the afterlife by those who claimed to love her. Similarly Maggie suffered because of the 'spirit-rappings', at the hands of explorer Elisha Kent Kane and his family. Kane dangled her at arm's length for several years, protesting that her habit of sitting in dark rooms holding hands with strangers was not fit behaviour for a woman he wished to marry. While he constantly exhorted her to give up the séances and was increasingly reckless about her reputation, he often ducked the matter of marriage citing the difference in their social class. Neither did he address the question of how Maggie was supposed to provide for herself while she was waiting for him to make up his mind.
Forty years after the initial spirit-rappings at Hydesville, Maggie and Kate confessed to a hoax, although they later recanted this confession, perhaps when they realised there wasn't nearly as much money in telling the truth as there was in telling people what they wanted to hear. Sadly they were both in terminal decline by this point; like many former child-celebrities they ended up alcoholics. Kate died in 1892 after a final drinking binge. Maggie followed her sister eight months later. At the time of her death she was penniless.
This is a warm and well-written introduction to the world of these fascinating sisters and the uncertain, exciting time in which they lived. Were they frauds? Were they genuine? Which was the truth? Their confession or their recantation? The waters have been muddied over the years (even the girls dates of birth are a matter of argument) but in leaving aside the controversy and concentrating on her subjects as individual personalities, I believe Ms. Weisberg has gone some way to shine more light on the Fox Sisters than has been in a long time.
This book paints a vivid picture of the early spiritualist movement, with its roots in the women's movement, abolition and non-conformist religion. It explores the various seductions of the séance room - the promise of power, of financial independence and perhaps a glimmer of certainty in the turbulent times of the American Civil War.
It also goes into the dark side of spiritualism, particularly in the case of the sensitive, affectionate Kate Fox, who lived much of her life being treated as a cipher or a conduit to the afterlife by those who claimed to love her. Similarly Maggie suffered because of the 'spirit-rappings', at the hands of explorer Elisha Kent Kane and his family. Kane dangled her at arm's length for several years, protesting that her habit of sitting in dark rooms holding hands with strangers was not fit behaviour for a woman he wished to marry. While he constantly exhorted her to give up the séances and was increasingly reckless about her reputation, he often ducked the matter of marriage citing the difference in their social class. Neither did he address the question of how Maggie was supposed to provide for herself while she was waiting for him to make up his mind.
Forty years after the initial spirit-rappings at Hydesville, Maggie and Kate confessed to a hoax, although they later recanted this confession, perhaps when they realised there wasn't nearly as much money in telling the truth as there was in telling people what they wanted to hear. Sadly they were both in terminal decline by this point; like many former child-celebrities they ended up alcoholics. Kate died in 1892 after a final drinking binge. Maggie followed her sister eight months later. At the time of her death she was penniless.
This is a warm and well-written introduction to the world of these fascinating sisters and the uncertain, exciting time in which they lived. Were they frauds? Were they genuine? Which was the truth? Their confession or their recantation? The waters have been muddied over the years (even the girls dates of birth are a matter of argument) but in leaving aside the controversy and concentrating on her subjects as individual personalities, I believe Ms. Weisberg has gone some way to shine more light on the Fox Sisters than has been in a long time.
September 21, 2016
I don't consider myself a hard-and-fast sceptic, but that's the role I played reading this. In the afterword, author Barbara Weisberg admits she wants spirit communication to exist, and the book shows it. Hoping to leave room for the possibility Kate and Maggie Fox were indeed mediums, Weisberg performed mental acrobatics that instead set off my bullshit detector. Perhaps the most frustrating example I found is in the final chapter, which mentions a 1904 newspaper article about physical evidence supporting Kate and Maggie's first spirit communications. However, if you bother to read the endnote, you'll learn this find was discredited five years later. Considering the vast majority of endnotes are brief citations or recommended further reading rather than additional details of the story, Weisberg essentially buried the information.
The beginning of the book was especially weak. The narrative was hard to follow, and I struggled to stay interested. Also, as the early parts of the Fox sisters lives contain the most gaps in information, Weisberg had the most opportunity to fill those gaps by suggesting that it could have been ghosts. Talking to the Dead turned something of a corner for me with the first attempts to discredit the sisters, and the passages in which mediums are debunked are probably my favorite in the book (maybe I'm more of a skeptic than I'd like to be). I also enjoyed Weisberg's ability to bring in the social and historical context that created Kate and Maggie. The discussions of gender, class, the changes in social mores, and the political movements of the day painted a rich picture, and helped humanize the sisters. It was interesting to think of mediumship as one of the few public outlets in which a woman could appear and speak her mind, even if her views would have to be filtered through "the spirits." Still, overall the book was uneven, and suffered from Weisberg's clear prejudice.
But I mean, really, when I picked this up I was mostly looking for a bit of fun, and I'll admit it was that.
The beginning of the book was especially weak. The narrative was hard to follow, and I struggled to stay interested. Also, as the early parts of the Fox sisters lives contain the most gaps in information, Weisberg had the most opportunity to fill those gaps by suggesting that it could have been ghosts. Talking to the Dead turned something of a corner for me with the first attempts to discredit the sisters, and the passages in which mediums are debunked are probably my favorite in the book (maybe I'm more of a skeptic than I'd like to be). I also enjoyed Weisberg's ability to bring in the social and historical context that created Kate and Maggie. The discussions of gender, class, the changes in social mores, and the political movements of the day painted a rich picture, and helped humanize the sisters. It was interesting to think of mediumship as one of the few public outlets in which a woman could appear and speak her mind, even if her views would have to be filtered through "the spirits." Still, overall the book was uneven, and suffered from Weisberg's clear prejudice.
But I mean, really, when I picked this up I was mostly looking for a bit of fun, and I'll admit it was that.
June 19, 2018
No, I'm sorry. I can't take any more.
I've read about two thirds of this book, and it just doesn't get any easier. What could have been a rather interesting read is bogged down in asides, tangents, unnecessarily detailed biographies of historical figures of the time, etc. Boy, did I get sick of Horace Greeley! He broods over the text like some bizarre Svengali figure.
All this quite apart from the fact that the authoress repeatedly claims that the Fox sisters "invented" seances, which they did not. If they did, where did all of the pre-existing spiritualistic periodicals and other mediums (contemporaries and older) in the US spring from? Let alone that Weisberg repeatedly refers to similar practices as far back as 18th century France--and as anyone who has any real knowledge of European history knows, "spirit communication" was well known long before that. I concede that the Ouija board is a patent American invention, but spiritualism, by whatever name you choose to call it, is not.
I see from GR that most of Weisbergs' books seem to be aimed at children. Perhaps that explains the poor editing that sapped the text of its vitality and had me skim-reading before I'd reached the halfway point.
I may return to this book at a later date, but I rather doubt it. So many books, so little time.
I've read about two thirds of this book, and it just doesn't get any easier. What could have been a rather interesting read is bogged down in asides, tangents, unnecessarily detailed biographies of historical figures of the time, etc. Boy, did I get sick of Horace Greeley! He broods over the text like some bizarre Svengali figure.
All this quite apart from the fact that the authoress repeatedly claims that the Fox sisters "invented" seances, which they did not. If they did, where did all of the pre-existing spiritualistic periodicals and other mediums (contemporaries and older) in the US spring from? Let alone that Weisberg repeatedly refers to similar practices as far back as 18th century France--and as anyone who has any real knowledge of European history knows, "spirit communication" was well known long before that. I concede that the Ouija board is a patent American invention, but spiritualism, by whatever name you choose to call it, is not.
I see from GR that most of Weisbergs' books seem to be aimed at children. Perhaps that explains the poor editing that sapped the text of its vitality and had me skim-reading before I'd reached the halfway point.
I may return to this book at a later date, but I rather doubt it. So many books, so little time.
November 9, 2011
An interesting look at the Spiritualist movement during the 19th century. The sisters, Leah, Maggie, and Kate, remain mysterious to me as they both validated their powers of mediumship for ages as doctors and others tried to debunk them, but also recanted their "powers" only to claim them again. The story of their life struck me as a sad one. I have to admit that I was puzzled by Leah and couldn't help but wonder if she didn't use her sisters, whether their gifts were actual or not, for her own personal gain. Regardless of that, it's worth a look to see, rather skeletally, how women's rights, abolition, and spiritualism met in various fashions. For that, the sisters are amazing when one considers the role of women in the Victorian age. Aside from the cover photograph and another illustration, there was nothing in regard to images. It would've been wonderful to see the sisters at various ages of their lives or products of their seances, even the people they knew. I did get a little lost as to those that actually knew them as toward the end life-long friends emerged that I either didn't remember from earlier or hadn't been mentioned at all.
May 28, 2018
I was interested in this subject for quite a while before happening to notice this book on sale. As others have said, it's hard to get through at times, and I had to force myself to keep picking it up after a few dreary sittings. Of course I don't believe any spirits were contacting anyone, but for most of the book, we only have the testimony of family members and believers, as if the author is trying to convince us it was real. Only in the final chapter or two do we get descriptions of how the sisters clicked their toes and knees underneath their flouncy dresses, and bopped apples on strings in overhead wooden floors to make the noises. Also, there were no pictures or maps at all. I still don't know what to think, or if the Fox sisters were total frauds or not, and why they would perpetrate such a hoax starting at such a young age. If they truly were knowingly preying on the bereaved, shame on them. It's a confusing book and three stars is probably too many. Read it if you want, but don't expect answers.
October 20, 2017
Fascinating book and very well written. The author placed the Fox sisters' story in its historical context rather than just making it a story of the paranormal. Using letters, newspaper accounts, personal reminiscences etc., she presented the details of the Fox's lives and deeds. In the end, she did what Maggie Fox advocated: she left "others to judge for themselves."
Next I'll have to explore the Grimke sisters and the Peabody sisters.
Next I'll have to explore the Grimke sisters and the Peabody sisters.
December 26, 2016
Interesting biography of a time when hype was king, & 2 sisters get caught up in a brand new movement....
February 2, 2018
I cannot get through this. Interesting topic but it’s written like a dry, boring book report. Really disappointing since the story has so much potential!
March 29, 2021
This was a slow, slow read. Somewhat boring. Interesting topic, but it just didn't do it for me.
March 7, 2009
Interesting..... but not enough to finish to the end....
September 21, 2023
I first read about the Fox sisters in a book published in the 1970s titled "The Table Rappers". The book like virtually everything else I had read about them since said they were clever frauds. I accepted that as true until I read Deborah Blum's "Ghost Hunters:...".
In "Ghost Hunters" an account of Maggie Fox's final hours was included. Fox was on her death bed incapable of moving while raps were occurring and the walls and ceiling as reported by the woman who was sitting with her. There was also an apparent spirit communication which the woman reported and found to be true. The woman friend was neither a spiritualist or believer. It was after this that I realized that quite a bit more was going on than in the conventional wisdom.
The book is not only a look at the Fox sisters but how 11 and 14 year old sisters inadvertently launched the spiritualist movement of the 19th century. It was if anything a raging fad of the times and it was further reinforced by the mass death toll of the civil war.
The author felt that the manifestations the sisters evoked could have been done by human means but she also mentioned how the sisters were never caught in fraud in 40 years. My thought of course was how can two young girls be so accomplished in the arts of stage magic and legerdemain? The people who witnessed the phenomena were not all credulous religious hicks but very many skeptics as well and were trying to see if they could identify any tricks.
Virtually every article on the Fox sisters will cite how Maggie Fox later in life gave a presentation in a theater of how she and sister evoked the raps. All articles will then go on to say how weak the demonstration was but the book points out that loud raps occurred all over the theater and were apparently not the result of Maggie cracking her knuckles. Maggie Fox then a year later recanted on her claims of fraud. There were other deeper psychological issues which drove her to publicly repudiate spiritualism, not just money as is assumed and reported.
There's an interesting afterward as well. When the phenomena first started manifesting around the sisters they said they were driven by the spirit of a peddler who had been murdered by a prior occupant of the house and buried in the basement. Because of a high water table they couldn't dig deep enough to see if a body was buried there. Some bone fragments showed up and a peddler's box was found. 60 years later in 1908 some boys were playing the basement of the former Fox house and a wall collapsed, revealing a skeleton.
The book is a very intriguing read and food for thought.
In "Ghost Hunters" an account of Maggie Fox's final hours was included. Fox was on her death bed incapable of moving while raps were occurring and the walls and ceiling as reported by the woman who was sitting with her. There was also an apparent spirit communication which the woman reported and found to be true. The woman friend was neither a spiritualist or believer. It was after this that I realized that quite a bit more was going on than in the conventional wisdom.
The book is not only a look at the Fox sisters but how 11 and 14 year old sisters inadvertently launched the spiritualist movement of the 19th century. It was if anything a raging fad of the times and it was further reinforced by the mass death toll of the civil war.
The author felt that the manifestations the sisters evoked could have been done by human means but she also mentioned how the sisters were never caught in fraud in 40 years. My thought of course was how can two young girls be so accomplished in the arts of stage magic and legerdemain? The people who witnessed the phenomena were not all credulous religious hicks but very many skeptics as well and were trying to see if they could identify any tricks.
Virtually every article on the Fox sisters will cite how Maggie Fox later in life gave a presentation in a theater of how she and sister evoked the raps. All articles will then go on to say how weak the demonstration was but the book points out that loud raps occurred all over the theater and were apparently not the result of Maggie cracking her knuckles. Maggie Fox then a year later recanted on her claims of fraud. There were other deeper psychological issues which drove her to publicly repudiate spiritualism, not just money as is assumed and reported.
There's an interesting afterward as well. When the phenomena first started manifesting around the sisters they said they were driven by the spirit of a peddler who had been murdered by a prior occupant of the house and buried in the basement. Because of a high water table they couldn't dig deep enough to see if a body was buried there. Some bone fragments showed up and a peddler's box was found. 60 years later in 1908 some boys were playing the basement of the former Fox house and a wall collapsed, revealing a skeleton.
The book is a very intriguing read and food for thought.
October 9, 2022
The Fox sisters were three sisters from Rochester, New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism: Leah (April 8, 1813 – November 1, 1890), Margaretta (also called Maggie), (October 7, 1833 – March 8, 1893) and Catherine Fox (also called Kate) (March 27, 1837 – July 2, 1892).The two younger sisters used "rappings" to convince their older sister and others that they were communicating with spirits. Their older sister then took charge of them and managed their careers for some time. They all enjoyed success as mediums for many years. - Wikipedia
Since these sisters were from my home town, I thought this book would be of interest to me. It wasn't. I found the writing to be dull and lifeless.
Abandoned after 10 pages.
NOTE: UGH! I seem to be in a major reading slump and am having a hard time finding any books I am interested in. So perhaps my rating of this book may be overly critical, and it is not really that bad… or perhaps not!
Since these sisters were from my home town, I thought this book would be of interest to me. It wasn't. I found the writing to be dull and lifeless.
Abandoned after 10 pages.
NOTE: UGH! I seem to be in a major reading slump and am having a hard time finding any books I am interested in. So perhaps my rating of this book may be overly critical, and it is not really that bad… or perhaps not!
July 31, 2019
Tells a good story of a spiritualist family in mid-19th century New York state. As other commentators mention, there's a lot of background: the Great Awakening religious movement, industrialization/ scientific inventions, abolitionism, women's rights, and, of course, the Civil War. Much of that fits in to the story of the Fox sisters, particularly the conflict between spiritualism and religion (although, paradoxically, both tendencies gathered momentum at the same time.
The same is true, and more directly, with the spiritualism/science interface. Strangely, there was some crossover between the two seemingly irreconcilable arenas. Science was seen as at least as anti-religious and spurious as spiritualism: both were perceived as impinging on religious territory. Interestingly, as the author shows, many scientists moved into the spiritualist camp, either for a curious visit, or to stay
The same is true, and more directly, with the spiritualism/science interface. Strangely, there was some crossover between the two seemingly irreconcilable arenas. Science was seen as at least as anti-religious and spurious as spiritualism: both were perceived as impinging on religious territory. Interestingly, as the author shows, many scientists moved into the spiritualist camp, either for a curious visit, or to stay
February 19, 2022
Kirja kertoo henkimaailman kanssa viestineiden Foxin sisarusten tarinan, joka on samalla tarina spiritualismin synnystä. Kirja kertoo tarinan yksityiskohtaisesti, mutta toisaalta etenee välillä narratiivin kannalta turhille sivupoluille. Hankalin piirre on kirjoittajan kamppailu oman uskonsa kanssa. Weisberg uskoo spiritualististen ilmiöiden todellisuuteen ja välillä tämä usko lyö häiritsevästi läpi: tekstissä toistuu usein väärinpäin asettuva todistustaakka, huijaustodisteiden ohittaminen ja olennaisten asioiden mainitsematta jättämäminen tai piilottaminen loppuviitteisiin. Tämä ei ole niin häiritsevää, että kirjaa ei jaksaisi lukea, mutta kirjan väitteitä kannattaa verrata muihin lähteisiin. Ja loppuviitteet kannattaa lukea!
December 31, 2022
After reading portions of this book in my sophomore year of college (2011), I finally circled back and read the whole thing. It's an excellent popular biography of the Fox Sisters, explaining how a game of make-belief ghost noises escalated into a new religious movement. Weisberg draws on key works of academic research and a good spread of primary sources. You can tell that Weisberg has deep knowledge of the history of Spiritualism and séances. The footnotes seem placed a bit randomly, and there are places where I wish Weisberg took a more analytical tone, but the narrative flows well. Weisberg packs an astonishing amount of detail into the book. Her criticism of the people who exploited the Fox Sisters is on point and, sadly, still relevant in 2022.
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