The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost

“Written like a novel but researched with academic rigor, this account of a photographer whose work seemed to incorporate images from the spirit realm stops short of either endorsing the veracity of the photographer's claim or debunking his work as a scam...A well-paced nonfiction work that reads more like a historical novel than an academic study..” —Kirkus “In this meticulously researched study of America’s dalliance with spiritualism in the 19th century...Manseau provides comprehensive context for his chronicle of Mumler, placing him at the intersection of the Spiritualist movement and the rise of the photographic art, and in the context of the Civil War, which acquainted Americans with death on an unprecedented scale.—Publishers Weekly, starred review “More than just a fraud, William Mumler was a pioneer in the new art of photography—a striking technology that not only offered new levels of immediacy but also immediately offered itself up to manipulation, provoking questions of authenticity even as its uncanny effects offered a tantalizing vision of the unknown. He was a huckster, but like all successful hucksters, he was a perfect reflection of his time. Peter Manseau's The Apparitionists recreates Mumler's life with a scholar's poise and a storyteller's grace, offering an enduring portrait of the nineteenth century through one of its most unlikely figures.” —Colin Dickey, author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places “Manseau has become the foremost chronicler of the deep American desire to believe in the weird, the strange, and oddly wonderful. His latest, The Apparitionists, is lighthearted and yet—in all senses—grave, a profound consideration of death and doubt illuminated by a 19th century gallery of genius and ingenious deception. The dead speak in this brilliantly entertaining tale.” —Jeff Sharlet, New York Times bestselling author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Life

Praise for Melancholy Accidents This is the deal that guns rights advocates have made with the Devil: in exchange for unfettered access, they have abandoned a moral universe in favor of nihilism. What Manseau’s Melancholy Accidents reveals above all is that while we may call ourselves a nation under God, the god we worship first and foremost is Fate.”—The New Republic "An impressionistic narrative that shows not only the history of gun use and misuse in the United States, but also the way people have processed and commented on the deadly unintended consequences of gun ownership." —Slate "Like something from the mind of Edward Gorey... the collection would be grimly funny if each of these anecdotes didn’t involve real friends, spouses and children getting shot... A macabre parade of blasted bodies and ruined lives." —The Washington Post Praise for One Nation, Under Gods "With tales of secret faiths, false tolerance and quiet yet formidable dissent, each chapter is a window onto lives that were lived on the margin of Christian narratives. And along with a few intriguing statistics, like the fact that 20 percent of Africans in the early colonies were Muslim, and that most of the colonists didn't bother to go to church, they shine a light on history's finer strands.... [A] lively, refreshing account."?Damaris Colhoun, New York Times Book Review "With a novelist's verve and a historian's precision, Manseau deftly guides us through a cacophonous religious landscape, studded with encounters so unexpected and bizarre that they could be the stuff of speculative fiction.... Manseau's book likewise represents a remarkable gathering of American spiritual voices. Much more than a simple catalogue of diversity, One Nation, Under Gods is a stunning history of religious cross-pollination."?Tanya Erzen, Bookforum "Truth telling and riveting storytelling don't always go hand in hand, but they do in this necessary history of America's stunningly diverse religious heritage."?Cathleen Medwick, MORE Magazine "An unusual work of history... A series of isolated snapshots, each chapter telling the story of a person considered a heretic, blasphemer, atheist or heathen, who nevertheless helped in some way to shape the course of American history."?Laura Miller, Salon "In 'One Nation, Under Gods,' Manseau... examines the tension between the one and the many in a wide-ranging series of anecdotes (some of them long forgotten) drawn from 500 years of American history."?Glenn C. Altschuler, San Francisco Chronicle "Manseau artfully packs each profile with context, adding the occasional soupçon of drama to assure maximal, enthralling readability."?Booklist Praise for Vows "[Vows] forms a history of how the priesthood evolved -- and how people navigate the boundaries between religious tradition and modern life. In the process, Manseau paints a picture of liberal -- and devoutly religious -- Catholics facing up to the church's authority."?Terry Gross, Fresh Air Praise for Rag and Bone "[T]hese remnants tell a similar story. They reveal the enduring power of faith, regardless of ideology, and the obsessive nature of religious belief -- which, as this entertaining book amply proves, is all too capable of taking peculiar turns."?LA Times

“More than just a fraud, William Mumler was a pioneer in the new art of photography—a striking technology that not only offered new levels of immediacy but also immediately offered itself up to manipulation, provoking questions of authenticity even as its uncanny effects offered a tantalizing vision of the unknown. He was a huckster, but like all successful hucksters, he was a perfect reflection of his time. Peter Manseau's The Apparitionists recreates Mumler's life with a scholar's poise and a storyteller's grace, offering an enduring portrait of the nineteenth century through one of its most unlikely figures.” —Colin Dickey, author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places “Manseau has become the foremost chronicler of the deep American desire to believe in the weird, the strange, and oddly wonderful. His latest, The Apparitionists, is lighthearted and yet—in all senses—grave, a profound consideration of death and doubt illuminated by a 19th century gallery of genius and ingenious deception. The dead speak in this brilliantly entertaining tale.” —Jeff Sharlet, New York Times bestselling author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Life