SINGER IN THE SHADOWS: The Strange Case of Patience Worth

by Irving Litvag ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 1972

Who may say yea and nay."" Not Mr. Litvag who has spent two years researching the first modern and complete (he says) story of Patience Worth, the 17th century woman who appeared in 1913 over the ouija board of three ordinary St. Louis housewives after the initial pat-pat-pat prefaced ""Many moons ago I lived. Again I come -- Patience Worth my name."" Seances and years and pages and pages of automatic writing later, Patience became very well known for her poems, homilies (""A goodly lesson is Patience and Worth a wait""), and novels including one massive story of the time of Christ entitled The Sorry Tale. She even decided to become a ""mither"" and accordingly Mrs. Curran, one of her three votaries of the planchette, adopted the child of a millworker who was brought up as Patience Wee. Patience was then and later interrogated and analyzed by every kind of investigator and was finally silenced at Mrs. Curran's death. Litvag is not sure whether Patience ever really lived nor will you be but he has told this fine necromantic story with a care which does not diminish its abiding interest. ""This be nuff.

Pub Date: March 6, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION