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by Peter Manseau (Author)
In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America's imagination. A "spirit photographer," William Mumler, took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of lost loved ones alongside his living subjects. At a time when artists like Mathew Brady were remaking American culture with their cameras, Mumler was a sensation: the affluent and influential came calling, including Mary Todd Lincoln.
It took a circuslike trial of Mumler on fraud charges, starring P. T. Barnum for the prosecution, to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation. And even then, the judge's stunning verdict suggested no one would ever solve the mystery of how Mumler did it. This forgotten puzzle offers a vivid snapshot of America at a crossroads in its history, a nation in thrall to new technology while grasping desperately for something to believe in.Author Biography
PETER MANSEAU is the author of the nonfiction books Vows, Rag and Bone, and One Nation, Under Gods; and the novel Songs for the Butcher's Daughter, a winner of the National Jewish Book Award. He is the first curator of religion at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland.
