Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism

Journal of Parapsychology, The, Fall, 2004 by Christopher M. Moreman

TALKING TO THE DEAD: KATE AND MAGGIE Fox AND THE RISE OF SPIRITUALISM by Barbara Weisberg. Harper San Francisco, 2004. 278 pages. $24.95.

Barbara Weisberg follows a long line of writers who have sought to provide the truest account of the famous (perhaps infamous) Fox sisters, and the development of the religion that they helped establish--Spiritualism. In addition to providing a biography, however, Weisberg has also made an attempt at weaving a tale of romance and tragedy out of what might otherwise have been a dry reading of history. I might add that she has been largely successful on the second count, while also still maintaining a decent amount of integrity on the first.

One of the impressive elements of Weisberg's effort is the amount of research that was undertaken in order to build the story. Rather than simply restating facts found in similar works, Weisberg has ranged into uncharted territory. Her bibliography breaks her sources down into three distinct and easy to use sections. She first lists primary sources, being those on Spiritualism or the Fox sisters in particular, that were written mainly in the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, thus being closer to the facts as they occurred. She also lists a lengthy set of secondary sources that represent more modern works, many of which are good scholarly texts and biographical accounts that draw on a variety of sources of their own. Finally, she includes journals, newspapers, and other direct sources of the times. She also quotes a number of letters written by people closely associated with the stories being recounted throughout her book, with footnotes detailing them all. These letters add an essential personal context to the entire book, and are really the source of Weisberg's greatest achievement.

While successfully drawing on a very broad selection of sources, both personal and historical, Weisberg has not only written a useful biography of the Fox sisters and the times they lived in, but she has also succeeded in writing an interesting book. Her style not only paints some vivid pictures of the main characters, but she also manages to place them in a fascinating historical context. She makes each of the players in this story, and the Fox sisters in particular, come alive for the reader in a way that has seldom, if ever, been accomplished in any similar biographical effort.

In particular, Weisberg seems to flourish when she recounts the tragic love story of Maggie Fox and Elisha Kane. Throughout chapters 12 and 13, she draws heavily on love letters written between the two over a span of several years. Here, she allows the letters to speak for themselves, while also creating an overwhelming sense of romance ending in tragedy. These two chapters contain, in my opinion, the best writing in the book if for no other reason than that Weisberg appears to revel in the drama of the story. And it is certainly a story worth telling.

The fact that Weisberg also pays special attention to history and setting adds to the overall effect of her book as well. She does not simply tell the story of the Fox sisters themselves, nor does she dryly relate the origins of Spiritualism without context. She often goes to great lengths to provide historical background, breaking up her story with frequent side trips that establish the mood and setting before resuming her main task. Her work here is both well researched and well written, widening the potential audience by appealing not only to those interested in Spiritualism or the paranormal but to American history buffs in general.

I have commended Weisberg on her research on both the overall historical aspects of this work and the biographical material that is its heart, but that is not to say that Talking to the Dead is a flawless account of the truth. Certainly, it must be acknowledged that in any biographical book, especially one written long after all of the main figures have died, one cannot expect to fill every hole in detail or fact. While Weisberg has succeeded in writing a largely interesting and comprehensive book on the Fox sisters, it is obvious that she has, in places, chosen atmosphere over fact. While a certain degree of artistic license is to be expected, it is important to be aware of potential issues this might create.

The main problem I can see is Weisberg's use of one source in particular: Leah Underhill's (nee Fox) semi-autobiographical text The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism. Perhaps moreso than her sisters, Leah is a controversial figure in the history of Spiritualism, and her book is known to contain exaggerations and factual inaccuracies. Weisberg points out the failings of certain of her sources throughout the body of her text, but in the case of Leah Underhill's book, she mentions its flaws only in a footnote. Despite these flaws, Weisberg states, "Unless there is material that directly contradicts her stories or calls them into question,

I have used her information to provide clues to actual events ..." (Chapter 2, note 8). In fact, much of the material being used in this way consists of anecdotes of the most extraordinary kind, detailing alleged paranormal phenomena that are not corroborated otherwise. Of course, without any claims that specifically call Leah Underhill's testimony into question, the anecdotes and descriptions she provides do make for a better and certainly more exciting story. Still, hiding in a footnote the fact that this source has often been called into question leads the casual reader to a different version of reality than that which is more likely to be historically accurate.