THE MAD FORTIES

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 1942

A thoroughly enlivening, entertaining record of a very susceptible decade, the 1840's, when crackpots and charlatans, cultists and converts, imposed eccentric and often dangerous notions on an eager people. Water healers and dieticians, phrenologists and magnetizers, spiritists and Utopians, practitioners of the amative arts, transcendentalists, intellectuals and quacks all succumbing alike to fads and fancies, famous Fowler brothers who excelled in interpreting cranial protuberances; the equally famous Fox sisters whose rapping seances fascinated many; Mary Gove, the English lecturer who publicized all these above ""sciences"", and some of the famous men who fell for their wiles -- Poe and Brisbane, Alcott and Emerson. An amazing era, and a disgraceful one, brought back with wit and zest. Very good reading.

Pub Date: Oct. 14, 1942

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1942

Categories: NONFICTION