COMMENT:D.D. Home was one of the great 19th century mediums, who was also never publicly shown to be a fraud. So his reputation lives on in paranormalist circles. Stein builds a strong case against him, showing how his phenomena might be reproduced by conjurers. Physicist William Crookes's investigations of Home do not count for much either, being poorly conducted. Stein also uncovers some very suggestive evidence that Crookes perpetrated fraud in supporting another medium, Florence Cook. A valuable book for those interested in spiritualism and the origins of psychical research.
DATE:19990701
KEYWORDS:conjuring fraud psi:history
MISC:140p., foreword by James Randi
PUBLISHER:Prometheus
SUBMITADDR:bibliographer@csicop.org
SUBMITNAME:Taner Edis
TITLE:The Sorcerer Of Kings: The Case of Daniel Dunglas Home and William Crookes