Syllabus for

University Course 83

 

Women, Magic and Power

1800-1960

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. Robert Mathiesen                                                                                       Spring, 2004/5

University Course 83                                                                                           Robert Mathiesen

MWF, 12:00-12:50 am                                                                         Salomon Center, room 203

 

 

Women, Magic and Power, 1800-1960

Fall, 2004/5

 

 

 

Description of the Course

 

This course examines the lives of about two dozen prominent women in the U.S. and the U.K., all of whom were linked in a network of personal acquaintance, who sought to gain power and to bring about political and social reforms through magic or radically unconventional religion.  Among them were mesmerists, spiritualists, religious teachers, physicians, sex reformers, politicians, occultists, actors, and poets.  Particular emphasis will be placed on the connections between their occult and spiritual practices and their political and social activism in the context of the women's rights movement and shifts in ideas about femininity in the U.S. and the U.K.

 

 

Disclaimer

 

Some of the women and men studied in this course wrote about human sexual activity, and at times even examined specific techniques of sexual intercourse with very close attention to the anatomical, physiological and psychological details.  Also, some kinds of sexual activity which some of them discussed or recommended (or even practiced) may currently be regarded as immoral, perverted, exploitative or abusive, or may be illegal.  Likewise, some of the political positions that they took may currently be regarded as reprehensible, subversive, or may even be illegal to advocate.  Moreover, a few of their writings have been condemned by one or another court of law under statutes pertaining to obcenity, blasphemy or anarchy, and their authors have been imprisoned (or, in one case, judicially murdered) for publishing them.  Even today some of their views and writings have not lost their power to shock or offend many people. 

 

Nevertheless, any course on these women must examine some of this problematic material.  Please understand that I do not wish to shock or offend you, but that I am unable to avoid the risk of shock or offense if I am to give these women and men the academic consideration that they deserve.

 

Before you decide to enroll in this course, therefore, I request that you consider whether you may be offended, intimidated, embarrassed or otherwise adversely or unacceptably affected by such texts and ideas, and also by dispassionate, non-judgemental academic discussion of them in the mixed company of the classroom.  I also ask you to let me know immediately whenever you find that any particular text, idea or discussion has affected you in any such way, so that I can attempt to reduce the possibility for offense in the future.  I also am glad to excuse any of you from any particular class or seminar whenever you feel that the assigned text or topic may affect you too strongly in any such way.

 

Your decision to remain enrolled in this course signifies that you know that some of the texts and topics of this course will be problematic in the ways specified, and that you promise to accept any risk which this fact may entail to you.

 

Calendar for the Course

 

             M    W    F                  M    W    F

Week  1  =   –   26   28* Jan.    9  =  21†  23   25§

      2  =  31†   2    4  Feb.         [Spring Recess]

      3  =   7†   9   11§         10  =   4†   6    8§ Apr.

      4  =  14*  16   18§         11  =  11   13   15§

      5  =  --   23†  25§         12  =  18†  20   22§

      6  =  28    2    4§ Mar.    13  =  25*  27   29§

      7  =   7†   9   11          14  =   2†   4*   6§ May

      8  =  14*  16   18§         15  =   9*  --   –-    

 

* A written assignment is due by 5:00 pm on this day.

† A reading assignment is due before class on this day.

§ This Friday’s class is a Seminar.

This course will meet during Reading Period.

 

Office hours will be held on Fridays, 2:00-4:00 pm, or by individual appointment at other times, in room 022 in the basement of Marston Hall (863-3597). 

 

 

Reading Assignments

 

You will have two kinds of reading assignments in this course.

 

 

1.  Required Books.  These books are to be read by the first class in the specified week.  There are the seven required books available for purchase in the bookstore, and an eighth which will be made available as an author's reprint in class.  (For their dates and publishers see the bibliography at the end of this syllabus.)

 

Week 2 (by 1/31):            Ann Braude’s Radical Spirits.

 

Week 3 (by 2/7):              Robert Mathiesen’s The Unseen Worlds of Emma Harding Britten.

 

Week 5 (by 2/23):            Joscelyn Godwin’s The Theosophical Enlightenment. 

 

Week 7 (by 3/7):              Mary K. Greer’s Women of the Golden Dawn.

 

Week 9 (by 3/21):            Gillian Gill’s Mary Baker Eddy..

 

Week 10 (by 4/4):            Beryl Satter’s Each Mind a Kingdom.

 

Week 12 (by 4/18):          Barbara Goldsmith’s Other Powers.

 

Week 14 (by 5/2):            Ronald Hutton’s  The Triumph of the Moon.

 

 

2.  Readings in the Primary Sources.  These texts are to be read in advance of each Friday Seminar (see immediately below).  They are the most important of all your assigned readings, as they will be examined in the Friday Seminars, which — together with class participation — count for half of your grade in this course.

 

Friday Seminars

 

Most Friday classes will be devoted to student-led discussions of particular texts by one or another of the women studied in the course.  These primary sources will be distributed in xerocopy to the class at least a week in advance.  (None of them is under copyright.)  Each Friday seminar will have a student leader, who is responsible for conducting the discussion, and two or three other students who will serve as primary discussants, and who will be particularly responsible for the intellectual quality of the seminar.  All other students are secondary discussants, who are expected to contribute to the discussion, though not necessarily as much as the primary discussants.  All students are expected to have read the assigned texts for each Friday seminar, but the seminar leader and the primary discussants are expected to have read them with particular care.

 

 

Written Assignments

 

Each assignment is due by 5:00 pm on the specified day.  You must hand in two copies of each assignment.

 

F    1/28     #1.  First Personal Essay.  Write a brief personal essay telling what personal and/or academic interests have led you to take this course, what you hope to get out of it, and what previous exposure (if any) you may have had to magic or magical religion.  Please include anything which will shed light on your choice of this course.  This essay will not be graded, and will remain confidential.  Keep this essay on your computer, as you will need to refer to it at the end of the course (see #6 below).        

 

 M  2/14     #2.  Power Paper.  The most obvious ways to acquire personal power rely on straight-forward material advantages, such as physical strength, wealth, number of children and other relatives, or a central geographic or social position.  Yet there have been many cases where one individual has acquired significant personal power over others while lacking all such material advantages.  Such cases are most striking whenever there is an interpersonal relationship based on extreme and stable differences in the material advantages, for example, in the relationship between a wealthy person and an impoverished one, an adult and a minor, a guardian and a ward, a guard and a convict, a master and a slave, a bully and a victim, a marginal person and one in the mainstream of his or her society, or — in very many societies — a man and a woman.  Write a brief essay on the various ways in which the seemingly weaker, marginal or subordinate person in such a relationship may manage to acquire considerable personal power over the seemingly stronger, central or dominant person.  Note: This is not a research paper that requires a bibliography and footnotes, but a general essay requiring wisdom, independent thought and insight into life.  Keep this essay on your computer, as you will be asked to re-write it at the end of the course (see #5 below).

 

M   3/14     #3.  Prospectus for Research Paper or Creative Project.  First, choose the subject of your major research paper or creative project.  Your subject may be (a) any one of the women listed at the end of the syllabus, or (b) any one of the major spiritual (religious, magical or occult) movements treated in the course, or (c) any of the major techniques or practices treated in the course, or (d) any other major theme of the course.  You must have checked with me in advance for approval of your chosen subject.  Second, write a page or two explaining the reasons for your choice and  what you will attempt to show or discover during the course of your research.  Third, prepare a tentative bibliography of the primary and secondary literature for your subject.  All this is due at the same time.

 

M   4/25     #4.  Research Paper or Creative Project.  Your research paper is due.  It should be as polished as you can make it on your own.

 

W  5/4       #5.  Revision of Power Paper.  Critically re-read your general essay on power (see #2 above), and revise or rewrite it in light of what you have learned in this course so far.

 

M   5/9       #6.  Final Personal Essay.  Critically re-read your initial personal essay (see #1 above), and write a second brief essay explaining what you have learned since you wrote that first essay. This essay, too, will not be graded, and will remain confidential.

 

 

Grading

 

Your grade for this course will be based half on your written assignments (#2-#5 only) and half on your participation in class, especially during the Friday Seminars.  As a general rule, late papers (even if their lateness is due to a computer crash!) will not be either accepted or graded.

 

 

Syllabus of Lectures and Discussions

Asterisks and daggers mark days when written assignments or reading assignments are due, as in the Calendar above.

 

Week 1:  Introductory

W        Introduction to the course

F*       Survey of the movements and the women to be studied

 

Week 2:  Historical Background; Mesmerism and Magic

M†      Historical background

W        Mesmerism, 1780+

F          The “Orphic Circle," 1830s+

 

Week 3:  Spiritualism, I

M†      Spiritualism, 1848+

W        Emma Floyd Hardinge Britten, 1823-1899

F          Seminar: Emma Hardinge Britten’s Autobiography [extracts]

 

Week 4:  Spiritualism, II

M*      Spiritualism and women’s rights, 1848+

W        Cora L. V. Scott Hatch Daniels Tappan Richmond, 1840-1923

F          Seminar: Early trance-lectures by Emma Hardinge & Cora Hatch [examples]

 

Week 5:  Occultism, I

M        [no class]

W†      Paschal Beverly Randolph, 1825-1875

F          Seminar: Paschal Beverly Randolph’s writings [extracts]

Week 6:  Occultism, II

M        H. P. Blavatsky [Elena Petrovna Blavatskaja], 1831-1891

W        The Theosophical Society and its offshoots, 1875+

F          Seminar: Early articles by H. P. Blavatsky

 

Week 7:  Occultism, III

M†      Annie Wood Besant, 1847-1933

W        Anna Bonus Kingsford, 1846-1888, and The Hermetic Society, 1884+

F          The Golden Dawn and its offshoots, 1888+

 

Week 8:  Occultism, IV

M*      Moina [Mina] Bergson Mathers, 1865-1928 and Florence Farr Emery, 1860-1917

W        Dion Fortune [Violet Firth], 1890-1946

F          Seminar: Dion Fortune’s novels [extracts]

 

Week 9:  The Metaphysical Movement, I

M†      The American Metaphysical Religions, 1875+

W        Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy, 1821-1910

F          Seminar: Autobiographical writings by Mary Baker Eddy

 

Week 10:  The Metaphysical Movement, II

M†      Malinda Eliot Cramer, 1844-1906

W        Emma Curtis Hopkins, 1853-1925

F          Seminar: Autobiographical writings by Malinda Cramer

 

Week 11:  Sex, Social Reform, Spirituality and Magic, I

M        The Free Love Movement

W        Lois Waisbrooker [Adeline Eliza Nichols], 1826-1909

F          Seminar: Lois Waisbrooker's The Occult Forces of Sex [extracts].

 

Week 12:  Sex, Social Reform, Spirituality and Magic, II

M†      Victoria Claflin Woodhull Martin, 1838-1927

W        Chandos Leigh Hunt Wallace, ca. 1854-19??

F          Seminar:  Chandos Leigh Hunt Wallace’s Private Instructions [extracts]

 

Week 13:  Sex, Social Reform, Spirituality and Magic, III

M*      Alice Bunker Stockham, 1833-1912

W        Ida C. Craddock, 1857-1902

F          Seminar: Alice Bunker Stockham’s Karezza.

 

Week 14:  Paganism and Witchcraft

M†      Nature Religion, Pantheism and Paganism

W*      Witchcraft and Wicca

F        Seminar: The Book of Shadows [extracts]

 

Week 15:  Retrospect and Prospects

M*      Retrospect & prospects

W        [no class]

 

General Bibliography

 

 

Unless otherwise indicated, books in this bibliography are in the open stacks of the Rockefeller Library.

 

 

Studies

 

Catherine L. Albanese.  Nature Religion in America from the Algonkian Indians to the New Age.  Chicago – New York:  The University of Chicago Press, ©1990.  — BL435 .A43 1990

 

Diana Basham.  The Trial of Woman: Feminism and the Occult Sciences in Victorian Literature and Society.  New York: New York University Press, ©1992.  — PR468 .F46 B37 1992

 

Mary Farrell Bednarowski.  New Religions and the Theological Imagination in America.  Bloomington – Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, ©1989.  — BL2525 .B44 1989

 

Charles S. Braden.  Spirits in Rebellion:  the Rise and Development of New Thought.  Dallas, TX:  Southern Methodist University Press, ©1963.  —  BF639 .B576 1963

 

Ann Braude.  Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America.  Boston: Beacon Press, ©1989.  Second edition: Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, ©2001  — BF1275 .W65 B73 1989

 

John L. Brooke.  The Refiner's Fire:  The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844.  Cambridge, UK:  Cambridge University Press, ©1994.  — BX8643 .C68 B76 1994

 

Jon Butler.  Awash in a Sea of Faith:  Christianizing the American People.  Cambridge, MA – London, UK:  Harvard University Press, ©1990.  — BL2525 .B87 1990

 

Mark C. Carnes.  Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America.  New Haven: Yale University Press, ©1989.  — HS204 .C37 1989

 

Walter H. Conser, Jr. and Sumner B. Twiss, eds. Religious Diversity and American Religious History:  Studies in Traditions and Cultures.  Athens, GA – London:  The University of Georgia Press, ©1997.  — BL2525 .R4694 1997

Note especially:

• Stephen J. Stein.  "History, Historians, and the Historiography of Indigenous Sectarian   

      Religious Movements in America," pp. 128-156.

• Catherine L. Albanese.  "Dissident History:  American Religious Culture and the    Emergence of the Metaphysical Tradition," pp. 157-188.

 

Adam Crabtree.  Animal Magnetism, Early Hypnotism, and Psychical Research, 1766-1925: An Annotated Bibliography.  White Plains, NY: Kraus International Publications, ©1988.  — [SCI REF]  Z6878 .A54 C73 1988

 

John Patrick Deveney.  Paschal Beverly Randolph:  A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician.  Albany, NY:  State University of New York Press, ©1997.  — BF1408.2 .R364 1997

 

Robert S. Ellwood, Jr. Alternative Altars:  Unconventional and Eastern Spirituality in America.  Chicago – London:  The University of Chicago Press, ©1979.  — BL2530 .U6 E44

 

Sandra Sizer Frankiel.  California's Spiritual Frontiers:  Religious Alternatives in Anglo-Protestantism, 1850-1910.  Berkeley – Los Angeles – London:  University of California Press, ©1988.  — BL2527 .C2 F72 1988

 

Robert C. Fuller.  Mesmerism and the American Cure of Souls.  Philadelphia:  University of Pennsylvania Press, ©1982.  — BF1125 .F84 1982

 

Mary Gabriel.  Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull Uncensored.  Chapel Hill,  NC: Algonquin Books, 1998.   — HQ1413 .W66 G34 1998

 

Alan Gauld.  The Founders of Psychic Research.  London: Routledge & K. Paul, ©1968.  — [SCI]  BF1026 .G3

 

Alan Gauld.  A History of Hypnotism.  Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press, ©1992.  — [SCI]  BF1125 .G38 1992

 

Gillian Gill.  Mary Baker Eddy.  (Radcliffe Biography Series.)  Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1998.   — BX6995 .G55x 1998

 

Joscelyn Godwin.  The Theosophical Enlightenment.  Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, ©1994.  — BP545 .G63 1994

 

Joscelyn Godwin, Christian Chanel & John. P. Deveney.  The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Practical Documents of an order of Practical Occultism.  York Beach, ME: Weiser, ©1995.  — BF1429 .H47 1995

 

Barbara Goldsmith.  Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism,and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.  — HQ1413 .W66 G65 1998

 

Linda Gordon.  Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: Birth Control in America.  Revised ed.  New York: Penguin, ©1990 .  — HQ766.5 .U5 G67 1990

 

Stephen Gottschalk.  The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life.  Berkeley – Los Angeles: University of California Press, ©1973.  — BX6943 .G66

 

Mary K. Greer.  Women of the Golden Dawn:  Rebels and Priestesses.  Rochester, VT:  Park Street Press, ©1995.  — BF1408 .G74 1995

 

Philip Heselton.  Wiccan Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival.  Freshfields, Chieveley, Berks.: Capall Bann, © 2000.  — BF1571 .H47x 2000

 

Robert V. Hine.  California's Utopian Colonies.  San Marino, CA:  The Huntington Library, ©1953.  — HX653 .H5

 

Ronald Hutton.  The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft.  Oxford–New York: Oxford University Press, © 1999.  — BF1581 .H88 1999

 

J. Stillson Judah.  The History and Philosophy of the Metaphysical Movements in America.  Philadelphia:  The Westminster Press, ©1967.  — BR516.5 .J82

 

Howard Kerr.  Mediums, and Spirit-Rappers, and Roaring Radicals:  Spiritualism in American Literature, 1850-1900.  Urbana – Chicago – London:  University of Illinois Press, ©1972.  — PS169 .S65 K4

 

Howard Kerr and Charles L. Crow, eds. The Occult in America:  New Historical Perspectives.  Urbana – Chicago:  The University of Illinois Press, ©1983.  — BF1434 .U6 O33 1983

Note especially:

• Robert Galbreath.  "Explaining Modern Occultism," pp. 11-37.

• Jon Butler.  "The Dark Ages of American Occultism, 1760-1848," pp.  58-78.

• Ernest Isaacs.  "The Fox Sisters and American Spiritualism," pp.  79-110.

• Robert S. Ellwood, Jr.  "The American Theosophical Synthesis," pp.  111-134.

• R. Laurence Moore.  "The Occult Connection?  Mormonism, Christian Science, and

      Spiritualism," pp. 135-161.

­• Mary Farrell Bednarowski.  "Women in Occult America," pp. 177-195.

 

James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, eds. Perspectives on the New Age.  Albany, NY:  State University of New York Press, ©1992.  — BP605 .N48 P46 1992

Note especially:

• J. Gordon Melton.  "New Thought and the New Age,"  pp. 15-29.

• Kay Alexander.  "Roots of the New Age," pp. 30-47.

• Robert Ellwood.  "How New is the New Age?"  pp. 59-67.

• Catherine L. Albanese.  "The Magical Staff:  Quantum Healing in the New Age," pp.         68-84.

 

Colleen McDannell.  The Christian Home in Victorian America, 1840-1900.  Bloomington, IN:  Indiana University Press, ©1986.  — BV4526.2 .M37 1986

 

R. Laurence Moore.  In Search of White Crows:  Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture.  New York:  Oxford University Press, ©1977.  — BF1242 .U6 M66

 

Janet Oppenheim.  The Other World:  Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914.  Cambridge, UK – London – New York – New Rochelle, NY – Sydney – Melbourne:  Cambridge University Press, ©1985.  — BF1242 .G7 O66 1985

 

Alex Owen.  The Darkened Room:  Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England.  Philadelphia:  University of Pennsylvania Press, ©1990.  — BF1275 .W65 O94 1990

 

Gail Thain Parker.  Mind Cure in New England.  Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, ©1973.  — BF639 .P13

 

Frank Podmore.  Modern Spiritualism: a History and a Criticism.  2 vols.  London: Methuen, 1902.  — BF1261 .P6 1902

 

Frank Podmore.  Mesmerism and Christian Science: A Short History of Mental Healing.  London: Methuen, 1909.  — BF1125 .P6

 

D. Michael Quinn.  Early Mormonism and the Magic World View.  Rev ed.  Salt Lake City, UT:  Signature Books, ©1998.  — BX8643 .O25 Q55 1998

 

Beryl Satter.  Each Mind a Kingdom: American Women, Sexual Purity, and the New Thought Movement, 1875-1920.  Berkeley – Los Angeles: University of California Press, ©1999.    — BF639 .S124 1999

Hal D. Sears.  The Sex Radicals:  Free Love in Victorian America.  Lawrence, KS:  The Regents Press of Kansas, ©1977.    — HQ961 .S4

 

John C. Spurlock.  Free Love, Marriage and Middle-Class Radicalism in America, 1825-1860.  New York – London: New York University Press, ©1988.   — HQ967 .U5 S68 1988

 

Taylor Stoehr.  Free Love in America:  A Documentary History.  New York:  AMS Press, Inc., ©1979.    — HQ961 .F73

 

Eugene Taylor.  Shadow Culture: Psychology and Spirituality in America.  Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1999.  — [Not at Brown]

 

Thomas A. Tweed, ed.  Retelling U.S. Religious History.  Berkeley – Los Angeles – London:  University of California Press, ©1997.  — BL2525 .R473 1997

Note especially:

• Ann Braude. "Women's History Is American Religious History," pp.87-107.

• Catherine L. Albanese.  "Exchanging Selves, Exchanging Souls:  Contact, Combination, and American Religious History," pp. 200-226.

 

Lois Beachy Underhill.    The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull.  New York – London, 1995.  — HQ1413.W66 U53 1995 

 

Peter Washington.  Madame Blavatsky's Baboon.  New York: Schocken Books, ©1994.  — BP530 .W34 1995

 

Catherine Wessinger, ed. Women's Leadership in Marginal Religions:  Explorations Outside the Mainstream.  Urbana – Chicago:  University of Illinois Press, ©1993.  — BL2525 .W66 1993

Note especially:

• Catherine Wessinger.  "Going Beyond and Retaining Charisma:  Women's             Leadership

      in Marginal Religions," pp. 1-22.

• Ann Braude.  "The Perils of Passivity:  Women's Leadership in Spiritualism and     Christian Science," pp. 55-67.

 • Robert Ellwood and Catherine Wessinger.  "The Feminism of 'Universal   Brotherhood':  Women in the Theosophical Movement," pp.68-87.

• J. Gordon Melton.  "Emma Curtis Hopkins:  A Feminist of the 1880s and Mother of         New Thought," pp. 88-101.

• Cynthia Eller.  "Twentieth-Century Women's Religion as Seen in the Feminist        Spirituality Movement,"  pp. 172-195.

 

Alison Winter.  Mesmerized:Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.  — BF1125 .W56 1998

 

 

Biographical Dictionaries and Other Reference Works

 

Eleanor Flexner & Ellen Fitzpatrick.  Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States.  Enlarged ed.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (Belknap Press), ©1996.  — HQ1410 .F6 1996

 

Annie Laurie Gaylor, ed. Women without Superstition: "No Gods – No Masters": The Collected Writings of Women Freethinkers of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.  Madison, WI: Freedom from Religion Foundation, ©1997.  — CT3234 .W66x 1997

 

Edward T.  James, Janet Wilson James, & Paul S. Boyer, eds. Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary.  3 vols.  Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ©1971.  — 1-SIZE E176 .N65  [second copy in ROCK REF]

 

J. Gordon Melton.  The Encyclopedia of American Religions.  Wilmington, NC:  McGrath Publishing Co., ©1978.  — [ROCK REF]  1-SIZE BL2530 .U6 M443

 

J. Gordon Melton, ed. Biographical Dictionary of American Cult and Sect Leaders.  New York – London:  Garland Publishing, Inc., ©1986.  — BL2525 .M448 1986

 

J. Gordon Melton, ed.  Religious Leaders of America:  a Biographical Guide to Founders and Leaders of Religious Bodies, Churches, and Spiritual Groups in North America.  Detroit:  Gale Research, ©1991.  — [ROCK REF]  1-SIZE BL72 .M44x 1991

 

Timothy Miller, ed. America's Alternative Religions.  Albany, NY:  State University of New York Press, ©1995.  — BL2525 .A55 1995

 

Joan Perkin.  Victorian Women.  New York: New York University Press, ©1993 .  — HQ1599 .E5P47 1995

 

Jefferson P. Selth.  Alternative Lifestyles:  A Guide to Research Collections on Intentional Communities, Nudism, and Sexual Freedom.  Westport, CT – London:  Greenwood Press, ©1985.  — HQ971 .S45 1985

 

Barbara Sicherman, Carol Hurd Green, Ilene Kantrov & Harriette Walker, eds. Notable American Women: The Modern Period: A Biographical Dictionary.  Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ©1980.  — 1-SIZE E176 .N66  [second copy in ROCK REF]

 

Madeleine B. Stern.  We the Women: Career Firsts of Nineteenth-Century America.  New York: Schulte Publishing Co., ©1963.  Reprint: New York: Burt Franklin, 1974.  — CT3260 .S73 1962 [or: 1974]

 

Frances Elizabeth Willard & Mary A. Livermore, eds. A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred Seventy Biographical Sketches ... of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life.  Buffalo, NY: Moulton, ©1893.  Reprinted: Detroit, MI: Gale Research Co., 1967.               — 1-SIZE E176 .W69 1967  [reprint in ROCK REF]

 

 

Chronological Lists of the Women and Some of the Men in the Network

 

The Women in the Network:

Leah Fox Fish Underhill, 1814?-1890, and her sisters (Catherine Fox Jenken, 1833-1892,

       and Margaret Fox Kane, 1836-1893)

Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy, 1821-1910

Emma Floyd Hardinge Britten, 1823-1899

Matilda Joslyn Gage, 1826-1898

Lois Waisbrooker [Adeline Eliza Nichols], 1826-1909

H. P. Blavatsky [Elena Petrovna Blavatskaja], 1831-1891

Alice Bunker Stockham, 1833-1912

Victoria Claflin Woodhull Martin, 1838-1927

Cora L. V. Scott Hatch Daniels Tappan Richmond, 1840-1923

Malinda Eliot Cramer, 1844-1906

Anna Bonus Kingsford, 1846-1888

Katherine Tingley, 1847-1929

Annie Wood Besant, 1847-1933

Harriet Emilie Cady, 1848-1941

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1850-1919

Nellie Craib Beighle, 1851-1916

Emma Curtis Hopkins, 1851-1925

Chandos Leigh Hunt Wallace, ca. 1854-19??

Ida C. Craddock, 1857-1902

Florence Farr Emery, 1860-1917

Moina [Mina] Bergson Mathers, 1865-1928

Edith Maude Gonne MacBride, 1866-1953

Mabel Besant Scott, 1870-1952

Dion Fortune [Violet Firth], 1890-1946

 

Some of the Men Implicated  in the  Network:

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, 1802-1866

Warren Felt Evans, 1817-1889

Paschal Beverly Randolph, 1825-1875

Albert Leighton Rawson, 1828-1907

Henry Steel Olcott, 1832-1907

James Henry Wiggin, 1836-1900

William Wynn Westcott, 1848-1925

William Quan Judge, 1851-1896

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, 1854-1918

William Walker Atkinson, 1862-1932

Aleister Crowley, 1875-1947

Gerald Brosseau Gardner, 1884-1964