Talking to the Dead (37 page)

23.
Quoted in Margaret Fox Kane,
The Love-Life of Dr. Kane
(New York: Carlton, 1866), 253.

24.
National Cyclopedia of American Biography
(New York: J. T. White, 1930), vol. 5. The best source for information on the doctor can be found in the books that his wife and his son produced: Sarah E. L. Taylor, ed.,
Fox-Taylor Automatic Writing, 1869–1892: Unabridged Record
(Minneapolis: Tribune–Great West Printing, 1932), and W. G. Langworthy Taylor,
Katie Fox, Epochmaking Medium and the Making of the Fox-Taylor Record
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1933). These books are also the source for information on the family's sittings with Kate.

25.
Rachel P. Maines,
The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 14–17, 92.

26.
S. Taylor, ed.,
Fox-Taylor Automatic Writing,
111–12.

27.
The following quotations and the title of chapter 14 are drawn from a letter by Harriet Beecher Stowe to George Eliot, February 8, 1872, Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

28.
The culmination of the attempt to produce Frankie's picture is described in S. Taylor, ed.,
Fox-Taylor Automatic Writing,
22–23. The following three quotes are found on 26, 84, and 80.

CHAPTER 15: “EACH HAD HIS SECRET HEARTACHE”

1.
The quotes about Kate's departure and the title of chapter 15 are drawn from Sarah E. L. Taylor, ed.,
Fox-Taylor Automatic Writing, 1869–1892: Unabridged Record
(Minneapolis: Tribune–Great West Printing, 1932), 276–80.

2.
Blanche Ogden was a middle-aged relative of Livermore's, according to Herbert Jackson Jr.,
The Spirit Rappers
(New York: Doubleday, 1972), 182.

3.
There is an extensive literature on the rise and progress of Spiritualism in England. Accounts written by Spiritualists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries include Emma Hardinge Britten's chapters on England in her survey of the worldwide movement,
Nineteenth Century Miracles
(1884; repr., New York: Arno Press, 1976), and Arthur Conan Doyle's chapters on Great Britain in
The History of Spiritualism
(1926; repr., New York: Arno Press, 1975). Another comprehensive survey with sections on England, written by a member of the Society for Psychical Research, is Frank Podmore,
Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism,
2 vols. (London: Methuen, 1902), reprinted as
Mediums of the Nineteenth Century
(New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1963). Podmore's work swings in the direction of skepticism, particularly where physical rather than mental phenomena were involved. A more recent scholarly work is Janet Oppenheim,
The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).

4.
E. E. Fournier D'Albe,
The Life of Sir William Crookes, O.M., F.R.S.
(New York: D. Appleton, 1924), 223–24.

5.
Information on Jencken comes from his marriage certificate to Kate; his obituary in
Light
, December 3, 1881; Mariam Buckner Pond,
Time Is Kind: The Story of the Unfortunate Fox Family
(New York: Centennial, 1947), 251–54; and a letter from Kate Fox to Daniel Dunglas Home, February 17, 1876, Society for Psychical Research Archive, Cambridge University Library. The most useful background came from Neil Robertson, a descendent
through one of Henry's brothers, who lives in Australia and who provided a family tree and a fascinating unpublished biography, “Grandmother's Story,” by Amalie Christine Jencken. Information on Charles Livermore's later life was found in the 1880 census, through the Web site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, http://www.familysearch.org, October 30, 2003.

6.
Information on the church is drawn primarily from
A Short History of St. Marylebone Parish Church,
a pamphlet published by the church. The description of the marriage ceremony comes from an article that was reprinted both by Jackson in
Spirit Rappers,
183–84, and by Pond in
Time Is Kind,
268–69. They credit it to two different American newspapers, but the article most likely originated in England and was carried by papers in the United States.

7.
Information on Stainton Moses himself can be found, among other sources, in Alan Gauld,
The Founders of Psychical Research
(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968), 78–79, and in Leslie Price,
The Mystery of Stainton Moses: An Address Given in 1992 on the Centenary of his Death
(London: Psychic Pioneer Publications, 1999). Information on and quotations from the Stainton Moses sittings are drawn from R. G. Medhurst, “Stainton Moses and Contemporary Physical Mediums: Kate Fox,”
Light,
Winter 1963, 183–84.

8.
Information on Crookes's sittings and quotations from his article are found in William Crookes, F.R.S., “Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena Called Spiritual, During the Years 1870–73,”
Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism
(London: J. Burns, 1874), 81–102. Crookes's own objectivity has been called into question by several authors; see Ruth Brandon,
The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
(Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1984), 77–97.

9.
Information on Ferdie and Henry is drawn from W. G. Langworthy Taylor,
Katie Fox, Epochmaking Medium and the Making of the Fox-Taylor Record
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1933), 101–2. But the 1881 British Census cites 1874 as Ferdie's birthdate. On Ferdie's mediumship, see A. Leah Underhill,
The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism
(New York: Thomas R. Knox, 1885), 89–95, 464–70. As her sources, Leah cites the
London Spiritualist,
December 12, 1873, and the
Medium and Daybreak,
May 8, 1874.

10.
See Reuben Briggs Davenport,
The Death-Blow to Spiritualism: Being the True Story of the Fox Sisters, As Revealed by Authority of Margaret Fox Kane and Catherine Fox Jencken
(New York: G.W. Dillingham, 1888; New York: Arno Press, 1976), 164–67.

11.
This and following quotes are from S. Taylor, ed.,
Fox-Taylor Automatic Writing,
284, 282, 283.

12.
A brief mention of Henry's epilepsy can be found in Pond,
Time Is Kind,
286. The relationship between epilepsy and a form of religiosity that triggers dreams and voices was explored in
Newsweek,
May 7, 2001, 55.

13.
Kate Fox to Home, February 17, 1876, Archives of the Society for Psychical Research, Cambridge University Library.

14.
Henry Jencken to Edward Jencken, May 24, 1880, quoted with permission from Neil Robertson, descendant.

CHAPTER 16: “I LEAVE OTHERS TO JUDGE FOR THEMSELVES”

1.
A. Aksakoff to Kate Fox, January 2, 1882, American Society for Psychical Research. Sarah Taylor and Titus Merritt also refer to Kate's St. Petersburg visit: Sarah E. L. Taylor, ed.,
Fox-Taylor Automatic Writing, 1869–1892: Unabridged Record
(Minneapolis: Tribune–Great West Printing, 1932); Titus Merritt, “Chronology of the Fox Family: Interesting Details of the History of the Celebrated Fox Family,” in M. E. Cadwallader,
Hydesville in History
(Chicago: Progressive Thinker Publishing, 1917; distributed by the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, 1992).

2.
Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, “Results of a Personal Investigation into the Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism with Some Critical Remarks on the Evidence for the Genuineness of Such Phenomena,”
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research
4 (1887): 46–47.

3.
Quotations from the Seybert Commission and the title of chapter 16 are drawn from the
Preliminary Report of the Commission by University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1887), 32–47, 42.

4.
Quoted in Linda Simon,
Genuine Reality: A Life of William James
(New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998), 190.

5.
Sarah E. L. Taylor, ed.,
Fox-Taylor Automatic Writing, 1869–1892: Unabridged Record
(Minneapolis: Tribune–Great West Printing, 1932), 293.

6.
A. Leah Underhill,
The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism
(New York: Thomas R. Knox, 1885), 242.

7.
S. Taylor, ed.,
Fox-Taylor Automatic Writing,
364.

8.
Interview with the
World
is quoted in Herbert Jackson Jr.,
The Spirit Rappers
(New York: Doubleday, 1972), 198–99.

9.
Maggie recounts this story in the
New York Herald,
September 24, 1888.

10.
“The Curse of Spiritualism,” quoted in Reuben Briggs Davenport,
The Death-Blow to Spiritualism: Being the True Story of the Fox Sisters, as Revealed by Authority of Margaret Fox Kane and Catherine Fox Jencken
(New York: G.W. Dillingham, 1888; New York: Arno Press, 1976), 30–31.

11.
Kate's seance at Carlyle's house is discussed in
Light
on September 22, 1888, 468–69, and on September 30, 1888, 482.

12.
Davenport quotes this interview in
Death-Blow to Spiritualism,
34–38. The
Herald
article itself ends with the phrase “Spirits, is he not easily fooled?” When Davenport quotes from the article, he adds several extra paragraphs that didn't appear in the
Herald
and that seem to represent his attempt to underscore his point in
Death-Blow to Spiritualism.
The section reads as follows, p. 38:
Then I addressed certain suppositions to her. At last she said, “Yes, you have hit it. It is, as you say, the manner in which the joint of the foot can be used without lifting it from the floor. The power of doing this can only be acquired by practice begun in early youth. One must begin as early as twelve years. Thirteen is rather late. We children, when we were playing together, years ago, discovered it, and it was my eldest sister who first put the discovery to such an infamous use.
I call it infamous, for it was.

CHAPTER 17: “THE DEATH-BLOW”

1.
Kate's interview is quoted in Reuben Briggs Davenport,
The Death-Blow to Spiritualism
(New York: G.W. Dillingham, 1888; New York: Arno Press, 1976), 54–58. Davenport, not always reliable, attributes it to the
Herald,
October 10, 1888.

2.
Caroline Fraser,
God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church
(New York: Henry Holt, 1999).

3.
Davenport,
Death-Blow to Spiritualism.
Accounts of Maggie's appearance at the academy are drawn from the
World,
the
New York Herald,
the
New York Times,
and the
New York Daily Tribune,
newspapers that all reported the event on October 22, the day after it occurred.

4.
R. Laurence Moore drew my attention to Emerson's categories in
In Search of White Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 104. See John B. Wilson, “Emerson and the ‘Rochester Rappings,'”
New England Quarterly,
June 1968, 250.

CHAPTER 18: “UNCOMMON POWERS”

1.
Banner of Light,
November 10, 1888.

2.
Banner of Light,
November 17, 1888.

3.
Banner of Light,
November 24, 1888.

4.
Banner of Light,
October 8, 1892.

5.
Joseph Rinn,
Searchlight on Psychical Research: A Record of Sixty Years Work
(London, 1954), 64.

6.
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research,
January 1889, 15.

7.
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle,
July 4, 1892.

8.
The yellowed, dog-eared document dated November 16, 1888, now at the American Society for Psychical Research Archives, was delivered to James H. Hyslop by Mrs. Henry Newton, according to Hyslop's signed statement dated November 19, 1919. Hyslop doesn't swear to the document's authenticity, but he says that there's no reason to doubt it. Excerpts from the statement also appear in Arthur Conan Doyle,
The History of Spiritualism
(1926; repr., New York: Arno Press, 1975).

9.
Banner of Light,
October 8, 1892.

10.
Sarah E. L. Taylor, ed.,
Fox-Taylor Automatic Writing, 1869–1892: Unabridged Record
(Minneapolis: Tribune–Great West Printing, 1932), 369, entry for April 6, 1890. They were joined as well that day by the spirits of William Henry Vanderbilt, now a longtime visitor, and Helen Hunt Jackson, an occasional visitor.