Transatlantic Spiritualism and Nineteenth-Century American Literature

252 Pages·2007·0.919 MB·English

by  Bridget Bennett (auth.)

Transatlantic Spiritualism
and Nineteenth-Century
American Literature
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Transatlantic Spiritualism
and Nineteenth-Century
American Literature
Bridget Bennett
TRANSATLANTICSPIRITUALISMANDNINETEENTH-CENTURYAMERICAN
LITERATURE
Copyright ©Bridget Bennett, 2007.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 ISBN 978-1-4039-7800-4
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
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Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS.
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the
Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave
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trademark in the European Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-53804-1 ISBN 978-0-230-60486-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230604865
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bennett, Bridget.
Transatlantic spiritualism and nineteenth century American litera
ture / Bridget Bennett.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Spiritualism in literature. 2. American literature—19th century—
History and criticism. 3. Spiritualism—United States—History—19th
century. 4. Literature and spiritualism—United States—History—19th
century. 5. Occultism in literature. I. Title.
PS217.S65B46 2007
810’.9384—dc22
2007060005
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe, Inc.
First edition: June 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Ayesha and Iona
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction The Apparitional Past 1
Chapter 1 Crossing Over: The Spiritualist Atlantic 27
Chapter 2 Revolutionary Spirits:
The Persistence of the Occult 55
Chapter 3 Sacred Theatres: The SpiritistPerformances
of Shakerism in the 1830s and1840s 83
Chapter 4 Spirited Away: The Death of Little Eva and
the Farewell Performances of Katie King 115
Chapter 5 “There Is No Death”:
Spiritualism and the Civil War 147
Conclusion The Afterlife of Spiritualism 177
Notes 185
Bibliography 225
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the following presses for allowing me permis-
sion to republish early versions of this work: Cambridge University
Press for “Spirited Away: The Death of Little Eva and the Farewell
Performances of ‘Katie King,’” Journal of American Studies 40
(Spring 2006): 1–16; MIT Press for “‘Sacred Theatres’: Shakers,
Spiritualists and Performing the Indian in the 1830s and 1840s,”
TDR: The Drama Review 49, no. 3 (Fall 2005; T187): 114–34;
Manchester University Press for “‘Crossing Over’: Spiritualism and
the Atlantic Divide,” in Special Relationships: Anglo-American
Affinities and Antagonisms, 1854–1936, ed. Janet Beer and Bridget
Bennett, 89–109 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002).
I would like to offer my deep gratitude to the Leverhulme Trust
for a one year Fellowship that supported the early part of my
research and allowed me to visit libraries in Britain and the United
States, the Arts and Humanities Research Council for awarding me
a Research Leave Award, the British Academy for its generous travel
award, and the School of English at the University of Leeds for
granting me study leave and a period of teaching remission, which
greatly assisted me at a crucial time.
Many, many, generous people have contributed toward the mak-
ing of this book. They include friends, family, colleagues, students,
conference and seminar organizers and attendees, librarians, and
anonymous and known readers. I hope they will forgive me for not
giving an exhaustive list of names, dates, and places. I have a long-
standing suspicion of over-lengthy acknowledgments. I thank them
all and think they know who they are. They should not doubt for a
moment that I do. I would like to offer my very particular thanks to
Janet Beer, Susan Castillo, Hermione Lee, and Helen Taylor for
unstinting and much-appreciated support of various kinds over a long
period. My immediate colleagues at Leeds—Denis Flannery, Mick
Gidley, Jay Prosser, Andrew Warnes, (and more recently) Hamilton