In the Houses of Their Dead

In the Houses of Their Dead
Author :
Publisher : National Geographic Books
Total Pages : 0
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781631495601
ISBN-13 : 1631495607
Rating : 4/5 (607 Downloads)

Book Synopsis In the Houses of Their Dead by : Terry Alford

Download or read book In the Houses of Their Dead written by Terry Alford and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2022-06-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1820s, two families, unknown to each other, worked on farms in the American wilderness. It seemed unlikely that the families would ever meet—and yet, they did. The son of one family, the famed actor John Wilkes Booth, killed the son of the other, President Abraham Lincoln, in the most significant assassination in American history. The murder, however, did not come without warning—in fact, it had been foretold. In the Houses of Their Dead is the first book of the many thousands written about Lincoln to focus on the president’s fascination with Spiritualism, and to demonstrate how it linked him, uncannily, to the man who would kill him. Abraham Lincoln is usually seen as a rational, empirically-minded man, yet as acclaimed scholar and biographer Terry Alford reveals, he was also deeply superstitious and drawn to the irrational. Like millions of other Americans, including the Booths, Lincoln and his wife, Mary, suffered repeated personal tragedies, and turned for solace to Spiritualism, a new practice sweeping the nation that held that the dead were nearby and could be contacted by the living. Remarkably, the Lincolns and the Booths even used the same mediums, including Charles Colchester, a specialist in “blood writing” whom Mary first brought to her husband, and who warned the president after listening to the ravings of another of his clients, John Wilkes Booth. Alford’s expansive, richly-textured chronicle follows the two families across the nineteenth century, uncovering new facts and stories about Abraham and Mary while drawing indelible portraits of the Booths—from patriarch Julius, a famous actor in his own right, to brother Edwin, the most talented member of the family and a man who feared peacock feathers, to their confidant Adam Badeau, who would become, strangely, the ghostwriter for President Ulysses S. Grant. At every turn, Alford shows that despite the progress of the age—the glass hypodermic syringe, electromagnetic induction, and much more—death remained ever-present, and thus it was only rational for millions of Americans, from the president on down, to cling to beliefs that seem anything but. A novelistic narrative of two exceptional American families set against the convulsions their times, In the Houses of Their Dead ultimately leads us to consider how ghost stories helped shape the nation.


In the Houses of Their Dead Related Books

In the Houses of Their Dead
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Terry Alford
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-06-14 - Publisher: National Geographic Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the 1820s, two families, unknown to each other, worked on farms in the American wilderness. It seemed unlikely that the families would ever meet—and yet, t
The Houses of the Dead
Language: en
Pages: 152
Authors: Jamie Thomson
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-09-03 - Publisher: Fabled Lands Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The underworld was once ruled over by the death god Hades, but he sleeps in his immortal tomb, weakened by centuries of neglect. What is to be done with his rea
Commemorating the Dead
Language: en
Pages: 401
Authors: Laurie Brink
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-12-10 - Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The distinctions and similarities among Roman, Jewish, and Christian burials can provide evidence of social networks, family life, and, perhaps, religious sensi
House of Leaves
Language: en
Pages: 738
Authors: Mark Z. Danielewski
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2000-03-07 - Publisher: Pantheon

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“A novelistic mosaic that simultaneously reads like a thriller and like a strange, dreamlike excursion into the subconscious.” —The New York Times Years a
Ninth House
Language: en
Pages: 406
Authors: Leigh Bardugo
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-10-08 - Publisher: Flatiron Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"The best fantasy novel I’ve read in years, because it’s about real people... Impossible to put down." —Stephen King The smash New York Times bestseller f