num_pages: 393
description: * Nominated 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. 
language: English
title: The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox
titlecomplete: The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox
genres: 19th Century, Spiritualism, Biography, History, Nonfiction, United States
ratings_count: 50
places: Western New York, Rochester, New York, Hydesville, New York, Upstate New York
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: ASJA Outstanding Book Award
category: General Nonfiction
publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt