In the Shadow of Blackbirds(93)
As an adult, I read “The Man Who Believed in Fairies,” by Tom Huntington, an article that appeared in Smithsonian magazine, and I again learned about Elsie and Frances and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and grew further intrigued by their story. The article described the Victorian era’s Spiritualism craze, which had spread like wildfire across America and Europe starting in the 1840s. Spiritualism had gained new popularity during the desperate years of the First World War.
Why was the World War I period so horrifying? For starters, innovations in war technology, such as machine guns, high-explosive shells, and mustard gas, provided new means of terror, injury, and death on the battlefields. Furthermore, the influenza pandemic of 1918 (this particular strain was known as the “Spanish flu” and the “Spanish Lady”) killed at least twenty million people worldwide. Some estimates run as high as more than one hundred million people killed. Add to that the fifteen million people who were killed as a result of World War I and you can see why the average life expectancy dropped to thirty-nine years in 1918—and why people craved séances and spirit photography.
The flu hit hard and fast in the fall of 1918, targeting the young and the healthy, including men in the training camps and trenches. The baffling illness then waned shortly after the war’s end, on November 11, leaving as mysteriously as it had arrived.
Flu vaccines were crude and scarce, so people resorted to folk remedies to save themselves from the illness. Every preventive flu measure and cure described in this book came from historical accounts of the pandemic.
The contest that Julius Embers tries to win is based upon Scientific American’s 1923–24 offer of twenty-five hundred dollars to the first person to produce authentic paranormal phenomena in front of a committee of five. Renowned escape artist and magician Harry Houdini loathed phony mediums and their use of magic tricks in the dark, so he helped judge the entries. No one ended up going home with the prize.
Dr. Duncan MacDougall truly did weigh dying tuberculosis patients on an industrial-sized scale in 1901 to explore the loss of the soul at the moment of death. Most scientists consider his work to possess very little merit due to the many weaknesses in his studies.
For more odd and fascinating forays into psychical research and Spiritualism, explore the wealth of information found in such books as Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, by Mary Roach (W. W. Norton & Co., 2005); A Magician Among the Spirits, by Harry Houdini (Arno Press, 1972; original printing 1924); and Photography and Spirit, by John Harvey (Reaktion Books, 2007).
For more information about World War I’s devastating effects on the lives of the people who fought and on Americans back home, I recommend The Last Days of Innocence: America at War, 1917–18, by Meirion and Susie Harries (Vintage Books, 1998); Shell Shock, by Wendy Holden (Channel 4 Books, 2001); and Bonds of Loyalty: German Americans and World War I, by Frederick C. Luebke (Northern Illinois University Press, 1974). Be sure to also explore poems and books by such writers as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Ernest Hemingway, and Katherine Anne Porter: gifted artists who were actually there.
TO MY PATIENT, OPTIMISTIC, HARDWORKING AGENT, Barbara Poelle, who swore we’d get this book published even if it meant she’d have to bruise her knuckles banging down doors: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. We did it!
To my editor, Maggie Lehrman: Thank you for your amazing, insightful, and inspiring notes and for sharing (and improving upon) my vision of this novel. I’m so incredibly grateful you took a chance on my historical tale. To everyone at Abrams who’s helped me share this book with the world (Maria T. Middleton, Laura Mihalick, and the rest of the crew): I’m honored to have your talents behind this book.
To my early readers, Carrie Raleigh, Ara Burklund, Kim Murphy, and Francesca Miller: Thank you for your time, feedback, and unwavering encouragement.
To Bill Becker of PhotographyMuseum.com, Sophia Brothers and Sophie Richardson at the Science & Society Picture Library, Holly Reed at the National Archives and Records Administration, David Silver of the International Photographic Historical Organization, and Stephen Greenberg, Crystal Smith, and Douglas Atkins at the U.S. National Library of Medicine: Thank you for fielding all my historical image questions.
To Mrs. Betsy Martin and Ms. Kathie Deily, formerly of Crown Valley Elementary School: Thank you for making my writing feel special when I was a kid.
To my grandpa, Ward Proeschel, born in 1915: Thanks so much for sharing your memories of the early twentieth century with me.
To my parents, Richard and Jennifer Proeschel: Thank you for my life, and thank you for giving me the gift of the love of reading.
To my sister, Carrie Raleigh: You’ve been my first reader ever since we were children, and your love, companionship, and enthusiasm mean the world to me. I love you, Bear!
Last, but most certainly not least, thanks to my husband, Adam, and our two kids, for their steadfast patience, love, and support. This one’s for you, my loves.