| Description |
1 online resource |
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text file rda |
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Biography marcgt |
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eBook tlcgt |
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General tlctarget |
| Note |
Electronic book. |
| Reproduction |
Electronic reproduction. Boston Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2017 Available via World Wide Web. |
| Summary |
In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America’s imagination. A “spirit photographer,” William Mumler took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of a lost loved one alongside the living subject. Mumler was a sensation: The affluent and influential came calling, including Mary Todd Lincoln, who arrived at his studio in disguise amidst rumors of séances in the White House. Peter Manseau brilliantly captures a nation wracked with grief and hungry for proof of the existence of ghosts and for contact with their dead husbands and sons. It took a circus-like trial of Mumler on fraud charges, starring P. T. Barnum for the prosecution, to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation. And even then, the judge sided with the defense—nobody ever solved the mystery of his spirit photography. This forgotten puzzle offers a vivid snapshot of America at a crossroads in its history, a nation in thrall to new technology while clinging desperately to belief. |
| Subject |
Mumler, William H.
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Photographers -- United States -- Biography.
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Psychics -- United States -- Biography.
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Spirit photography -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
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| Genre |
Electronic books.
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| Added Author |
OverDrive, Inc., distributor.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Manseau, Peter, author. Apparitionists Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017 9780544745971 (DLC) 2017018074 |
| ISBN |
9780544745988 (electronic bk.) |
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