The Secrets of the Séance Society: Illustrated True Stories of Talking to the Dead
Chronicle Books, On sale September 22, 2026
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A gorgeous and delightfully spooky compendium of famous (and infamous) spiritual mediums who communicate with the dead. Plus, it includes an entertaining and instructive medium’s manual and usable Ouija board!
From the author-illustrator of the bestselling The League of Lady Poisoners, this lavishly illustrated treasury considers these haunting questions: What are spirits? Where can we find them? And how can we contact them? In answer, Lisa Perrin recounts, with respectful sincerity and a healthy dose of humor—complemented by clever Victorian-inspired portraits, icons, and lettering—the advent of Spiritualism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The book spotlights the era’s larger-than-life characters who, unlike many Spiritualist mediums who shared their gifts privately with clients, found their way onto stages and into newspaper headlines, and ultimately explores the deeper question of why the living world is endlessly trying to connect with the dead.
Learn about the Fox sisters and the birth of Spiritualism, when the sisters claimed to hear tapping, knocking, and rapping from a spirit of a peddler whose body had been buried in their cellar.
Explore the outrageous occurrences at mediums’ seances, such as the disembodied four-fingered hand that emerged from under the table of the Schneider brothers to play a musical instrument placed on the floor.
Traverse through the disintegration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini's friendship due to their famously differing opinions on the topic of spirits.
Delve into Perrin’s documentation of celebrities, investigators, fraudsters, reformers, and rebels of the age, and her knowledgeable overview of Spiritualism’s path that continues to stretch into modern culture.
Fascinating and fearsome all at once, this thrilling survey of mediums and their historical context will delight any reader who enjoys exploring the world beyond the veil. Through all the myths and legends, there is comfort to be found in the effort to contact the dead, for it is, at heart, time spent thinking about them and honoring their memories.
