The History of Spiritualism 2 Volume Set

This 1926 publication focuses on key practitioners and contemporary accounts of nineteenth-century spiritualism and the passions and controversies surrounding it.

Arthur Conan Doyle (Author)

9781108033220, Cambridge University Press

Multiple-component retail product, published 15 September 2011

732 pages, 16 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 4.5 cm, 0.96 kg

The Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) is best known for his creation of the character Sherlock Holmes. Trained as a medical doctor, Doyle - like many Victorian intellectuals - became fascinated by spiritualism and its promise of communication with the afterlife. Doyle was a firm believer in the movement, claiming as evidence 'sign[s] of a purposeful and organized invasion' from the spirit world. In 1926, towards the end of his life, he published this influential two-volume history. Volume 1 covers the background and origins of Victorian spiritualism, and focuses on key individuals including D. D. Home. It also reports on several scientific investigations of spiritualist phenomena. Volume 2 discusses celebrated mediums from 1870 to World War I, and topics including 'ectoplasm' and 'spirit photography'. The History provides valuable insights into Victorian and early twentieth-century culture and the controversies generated by spiritualism at that time.

Volume 1: Preface
1. The story of Swedenborg
2. Edward Irving: the Shakers
3. The prophet of the new revelation
4. The Hydesville episode
5. The career of the Fox sisters
6. First developments in America
7. The dawn in England
8. Continued progress in England
9. The career of D. D. Home
10. The Davenport brothers
11. The researches of Sir William Crookes (1870–4)
12. The Eddy brothers and the Holmeses
13. Henry Slade and Dr. Monck
14. Collective investigations of spiritualism. Volume 2: 15. The career of Eusapia Palladino
16. Great mediums from 1870 to 1900: Charles H. Foster, Madame d'Esperance, William Eglinton, Stainton Moses
17. The Society for Psychical Research
18. Ectoplasm
19. Spirit photography
20. Voice mediumship and moulds
21. French, German and Italian spiritualism
22. Some great modern mediums
23. Spiritualism and the war
24. The religious aspect of spiritualism
25. The after-life as seen by spiritualists
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]