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Narratively published this story I wrote about the Fox Sisters, who invented American Spiritualism in 1848. While researching, I spent some time in Rochester, where I visited the old foundation of the family’s home, now a holy site for Spiritualists, and met super-helpful historian Chris Davis of the Newark-Arcadia Historical Society. There’s going to be a Fox Sisters movie based on a 1936 New Yorker story. Meanwhile, below is a Fox Sisters bibliography I put together. Go here to read the full story.
Abbott, Karen. “The Fox Sisters and the Rap on Spiritualism,” Smithsonian, October 30, 2012.
Aventi, Anthony. “Chapter 16: Rochester Rap: The First Haunted House,” in Behind the Crystal Ball: Magic, Science, and the Occult from Antiquity Through the New Age. New York: Times Books, 1996.
Ballou, Adin. An Exposition of Views Respecting the Principal Facts, Causes and Peculiarities Involved in Spirit Manifestations. Boston: Bela Marsh, 1853.
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Braude, Ann. Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth Century America. Boston: Beacon University Press, 1989.
Cadwallader, Mary. Hydesville in History. Chicago: Progressive Thinking Publishing House, 1917.
Capron, Eliab W. Modern Spiritualism: Its Facts and Fanaticisms, Its Consistencies and Contradictions. Boston: Bela Marsh, 1855.
Chapin, David. Exploring Other Worlds: Margaret Fox, Elisha Kent Kane, and the Antebellum Culture of Curiosity. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004.
Cramer, Carl, “Voices Through the Trumpet,” New Yorker, May 16, 1936.
Davenport, Reuben Briggs. The Death-Blow to Spiritualism. New York: G.W. Dillingham, 1888.
Davis, Andrew Jackson. The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind. New York: S.S. Lyon and William Fishbough, 1847.
DiMeo, Nate. “The Sisters Fox,” Episode 27, The Memory Palace Podcast, March 12, 2010.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The History of Spiritualism. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 1926.
Hoeltzel, Bob. “Chapter 12: Arcadia Earns a Place on ‘The Map,’” Hometown History, Newark-Arcadia Historical Society, 2000.
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Houdini, Harry, “Houdini on Spiritualism,” New York Times, June 22, 1922.
The Elisha Kent Kane Papers, The American Philosophical Society. Online here.
Kane, Elisha Kent, and Margaret Fox. The Love-Life of Dr. Kane: Containing the Correspondence, and a History of the Acquaintance, Engagement, and Secret Marriage Between Elisha K. Kane and Margaret Fox. New York: Carleton, 1865.
Kane, Margaret Fox. “Signed Confession of Margaret Fox Kane,” New York World, October 21, 1888.
Lewis, E.E. A Report of the Mysterious Noises Heard in the House of Mr. John D. Fox, in Hydesville, Arcadia, Wayne County. Rochester, NY: Shepard & Reed, 1848.
Leonard, Maurice. People From the Other Side: The Enigmatic Fox Sisters and the History of Victorian Spiritualism. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2008.
McCabe, Joseph. Spiritualism: A Popular History from 1847. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1920.
Nickell, Joe. “A Skeleton’s Tale: The Origins of Modern Spiritualism,” Skeptical Inquirer, Volume 32.4, July/August 2008.
Page, Charles Grafton. Psychomancy: Spirit-Rappings and Table-Tippings Exposed. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1853.
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Pond, Mariam Buckner. Time Is Kind: The Story of the Unfortunate Fox Family. Clinton, CT: Centennial Press, 1947.
Stuart, Nancy Rubin. The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox. Orlando: Harcourt, 2005.
Todd, Thomas Olman. Hydesville: The Story of the Rochester Knockings, Which Proclaimed the Advent of Modern Spiritualism. Sunderland, England: The Keystone Press, 1905. [Incorporates Emma Hardinge Britten’s Modern American Spiritualism (1870) and Robert Dale Owen’s Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World (1860).]
Underhill, A. Leah (Fox). The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism. New York; Thomas R. Knox & Co., 1885.
Washington, Peter. Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon. New York: Schocken Books, 1995.
Weisberg, Barbara. Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rose of Spiritualism. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004