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Title details for The Ghost Club by Kate Winkler Dawson - Available

The Ghost Club

A Penguin Audiobook Original

by Kate Winkler Dawson
Kate Winkler Dawson
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
This audio original from the acclaimed author of American Sherlock, and the host of multiple true-crime podcasts, including Wicked Words, tells the fascinating story of the supernatural, and the club that united some of the world's most illustrious thinkers.
For more than a century, some of the world’s most important thinkers and leaders—men like Arthur Conan Doyle and William Butler Yeats—gathered once a month and discussed the supernatural at The Ghost Club in London. In the early 1900s the club's chairman was Harry Price, the world’s most well-known ghost hunter. He and other members, like Harry Houdini, sought to debunk the charlatans who preyed on vulnerable people with fake seances, tarot readings, and spiritual encounters. 
Price went to war with other researchers, as well as fake mediums, like the “witch” Helen Duncan. Price’s dramatic confrontation with Duncan during one of her seances ended with her arrest—she would be the last person in Europe ever tried under the Witch Act.

But Price’s best-known case, and largest experiment, was the year he spent living in the Borley Rectory in southeast England. Price was determined to prove (or disprove) the existence of poltergeists in the famed rectory using gadgets that many looked at with mistrust. Price’s conclusions would solidify both his reputation as the world’s greatest ghost hunter, as well as the Borley Rectory’s designation as the most haunted house in England.
The legends of The Ghost Club and the Borley Rectory still endure one hundred years later, ripe for fresh investigation.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 21, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593632048
      • File size: 116066 KB
      • Duration: 04:01:48

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      May 1, 2023

      Dawson (journalism, Univ. of Texas, Austin; American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI), the host of multiple true-crime podcasts, including Wicked Words, narrates this audio original, a fascinating glimpse into ghost hunting, seances, and the paranormal in Victorian London. The early 1900s saw a massive boom in popularity for mediums and tarot card readers, prompted by grieving family members who hoped to connect with lost loved ones. The boom ultimately exposed this vulnerable segment of society to a host of charlatans eager to prey on any unsuspecting mark who was desperate enough to pay. Harry Price, a renowned investigator of the occult, chaired the famous Ghost Club, which sought to investigate mysticism with scientific tools and methods. The club, where men such as Charles Dickens and William Butler Yeats gathered to discuss the paranormal in an attempt to debunk fraudulent mediums, turned into a phenomenon. Dawson brings the history of the Ghost Club alive, interweaving facts and stories into an engaging whole. Her passion for the material and excitement about unexplained mysteries brings anticipation and suspense to the audiobook. VERDICT A captivating and surprisingly moving story about paranormal history, spiritualism, and the occult. True-crime fans will love this.--Shannon Meyer

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the study of paranormal activity was a gentleman's game. The most exclusive and serious investigators of hauntings, apparitions, and unexplained phenomena were members of The Ghost Club, founded in 1862, with Charles Dickens as a founding member. Narrating this straightforward history with a sense of homespun curiosity, author and podcaster Kate Winkler Dawson guides listeners through a who's who of spiritualists, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who experimented with seances and telepathy; William Butler Yeats, who was fascinated by mysticism; and Harry Price, who excelled at scientific research in these areas. The Club continues to this day, meeting monthly at a pub in central London. The author proudly states that she has become a member. B.P. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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