02062cam a22003014a 450000100090000000300080000900500170001700800410003401000150007502000150009004000080010504200080011304300120012110000400013324500790017325000160025226000390026830000460030733600260035333700280037933800270040750400630043452011100049760000300160765000440163765000550168165500240173655886365MeVbMML20250627110210.0040702s2005    flua     b    001 0beng    a2004015704  a0151010137  cAJM  apcc  an-us---1 aStuart, Nancy Rubin,d1944-eauthor14aThe reluctant spiritualist :bthe life of Maggie Fox /cNancy Rubin Stuart  a1st edition  aOrlando, Fla. :bHarcourt, cc2005  axiii, 393 pages :billustrations ;c24 cm  atextbtxt2rdacontent  aunmediatedbn2rdamedia  avolumebnc2rdacarrier  aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 363-376) and index  aNominated for a New York Historical Society Book Prize in American History * Honorable Mention in General Nonfiction from the American Society of Journalists and Authors Here is the first authoritative biography of Margaret 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. But when she denounced the faith in 1888-appearing before a packed auditorium in her stocking feet to demonstrate-Spiritualism withered almost as quickly as it had bloomed.
Through the memoirs of the Fox sisters, the letters of Maggie's Arctic explorer husband, contemporary newspaper accounts, and other primary sources, Nancy Rubin Stuart creates a vibrant portrait of a Victorian-era woman at the heart of the tumults of her time.10aFox, Margaret,d1833-1893 0aSpiritualistszUnited StatesvBiography 0aSpiritualismzUnited StatesxHistoryy19th century 7aBiographies.2lcgft