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Just named a 2006 Outstanding Book Award by the American Society of Journalists and Authors! The Reluctant Spiritualist is the first authoritative biography of Maggie Fox, the world-famous medium and cofounder of the Spiritualism movement that swept America in the mid-1800s. In 1848, fifteen-year old Maggie and her sister Katy created rapping sounds by manipulating their toe joints, practicing until they convinced their parents that their farmhouse was haunted. What started as a prank soon transformed into a movement. By 1853 more than thirty thousand mediums were at work, with Maggie among the most famous. "Fascinating biography of Maggie Fox and the dawn of the (spiritualist) movement....The great strength of Stuart's book is that she provides the necessary historical context, and shows the deception gathering force by slow degrees against a climate of willing belief.... offers fresh insight into the bored young girl with the toes heard round the world." --WASHINGTON POST "Stuart retrace(s)the rise and fall of this legendary medium. This life story opens an illuminating window on an era and a movement." -- BOOKLIST, AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION "Stuart has created a richly sympathetic portrait of a fascinating and tragic woman, trapped by her family, her times, and her own aching heart,a woman who...didn't have the mettle or the means to make her own way but was swept along in the era's spiritualism fever." -- BOSTON GLOBE "Diligently researched biography of the young woman responsible in the 1800s for the growth of spiritualism...Stuart capably chronicles this period of religious ferment… vividly details the course of (Maggie's) ill- starred romance...A persuasive study of an unusual life." -- KIRKUS REVIEWS "Stuart gives us this first modern biography of Maggie Fox...fast-paced ...highly readable and entertaining." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "This impressive new biography tells the fascinating story of Maggie Fox...and) also the provocative story of nineteenth-century American spiritualism’s popularity...a richly detailed and easy-to-read narrative...certainly a not-to-be missed biography of a fascinating personality. But it is much more… the enigmatic history of a curious but important period in the spiritual history of America. – NIMBLE SPIRIT REVIEWS “A tale of love, betrayal, and the hope that prompted an entire nation to hunt for ghosts.... A fascinating, harrowing story.” -- Brenda Wineapple, author HAWTHORNE: A LIFE " Nancy Rubin Stuart has provided as complete a life of the elusive Maggie Fox as we are ever likely to have. Her evocative account reminds us how often Americans have mixed religious seeking with humbug." -- R. Laurence Moore, Director of American Studies, Cornell University
Excerpt from The Reluctant Spiritualist.
"'When I look back on that life I almost say in defense that I never took any pleasure in it,' Maggie later confessed to the New York World. Adding to the awkwardness of her situation, by 1849 the sixteen-year-old was becoming a beauty. Her fresh-faced appearancenot only charmed the mourning men who attended the seances, but also beguiled their romantically inclined wives, sistsers, and mothers.
Many of the visitors perceived her as an angelic creature, an emblem of untouched purity through whom spirits could willingy pass." Publication Date is February 15, 2005
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