TALKING TO THE DEAD: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism

In the spring of 1848, 11-year-old Kate and 14-year-old Maggie Fox began hearing unusual noises in the western New York house their family had recently rented. The source of the "rapping" sounds was attributed to the spirit of a peddler who communicated with the girls, telling them the previous tenant had robbed, murdered and buried him in the basement. Within a year, spirits were also communicating through the girls' much-older and reportedly manipulative sister Leah. News of the unusual events spread, drawing curious and sometimes hostile crowds. The phenomena gave rise to the popularity of Spiritualism and catapulted the young girls into a life of international celebrity for the next 40 years. Their group séances and private sessions brought them into contact with such powerful figures as Horace Greeley, who defended them in print and provided a home and education for Kate, and a Russian bureaucrat who invited Kate to promote Spiritualism and use her powers to develop security procedures for the coronation of Czar Alexander III in 1882. Maggie later publicly denounced Spiritualism and demonstrated how she produced the rapping sounds—only to reverse her stance the following year. Weisberg, a former television producer and documentary filmmaker, seamlessly tells the Foxes' story within the context of geographic and religious influences as well as national events. (Apr. 13)