Out of the Shadows

Queen Victoria's reign was an era of breathtaking social change, but it did little to create a platform for women to express themselves. However, within the social sphere of the séance—a mysterious, lamp-lit world on both sides of the Atlantic—women who craved a public voice could hold their own.

Out of the Shadows tells the stories of the enterprising women whose supposedly clairvoyant gifts granted them fame, fortune, and most importantly, influence. These women crossed rigid boundaries of gender and class as effortlessly as they moved between the realms of the living and the dead.

The Fox sisters inspired some of the era's best-known political activists and sparked a transatlantic séance craze. While in the throes of a trance, Emma Hardinge Britten delivered powerful speeches to crowds of thousands. Victoria Woodhull, guided by the spirit world, took on Wall Street millionaires before becoming America's first female presidential candidate. Georgina Weldon narrowly escaped the asylum before becoming a celebrity campaigner against archaic lunacy laws.

Drawing on diaries, letters, and rarely seen memoirs and texts, Emily Midorikawa illuminates a radical history of female influence that has been confined to the dark until now.