Calling the Spirits

From Halloween expert Morton, a level-headed and entertaining history of our desire and attempts to hold conversations with the dead.

"An ambitious primer on the history of Spiritualism, . . . Calling the Spirits is engagingly written, well illustrated, and up-to-date." --Journal of the Society for Psychical Research

Calling the Spirits investigates the eerie history of our conversations with the dead, from necromancy in Homer's Odyssey to the emergence of Spiritualism--when Victorians were entranced by mediums and the seance was born. Among our cast are the Fox sisters, teenagers surrounded by "spirit rappings"; Daniel Dunglas Home, the "greatest medium of all time"; Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose unlikely friendship was forged, then riven, by the afterlife; and Helen Duncan, the medium whose trial in 1944 for witchcraft proved more popular to the public than news about the war. The book also considers Ouija boards, modern psychics, and paranormal investigations, and is illustrated with engravings, fine art (from beyond), and photographs. Hugely entertaining, it begs the question: is anybody there . . . ?

Lisa Morton is an award-winning author and widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading authorities on the supernatural. Her work includes The Halloween Encyclopedia and A Hallowe'en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writings Over the Centuries.