If you are old enough to remember the late 1980s and early 1990s, that was a time when people were very interested in authors who had channeled spirits. These people would go into a trance, and then speak as someone else while another person took dictation.
A couple of decades earlier, a Saratoga Springs woman named Jane Roberts had served as a medium for the entity "Seth," who had complex and interesting commentaries on human perceptions and behaviors. Meticulous records of these sessions were kept by Robert, Jane Roberts' husband, and several books were published, containing the transcribed session work. The Seth Speaks was published in 1970.
None of the spirits involved in the previously-mentioned examples were literary, though. But Patience Worth, a 17th century English woman, was a prolific author, by way of the pen of Pearl Curran. Curran, born Pearl Lenore Pollard in 1883, lived in Missouri and had studied singing in her early years, thensupported herself through at-home music lessons until she married. After that, Curran's life was unremarkable until, during her 29th year, she went with a friend to visit someone who had a Ouija board. This was in 1912, the year the Titanic sank and also a year in which there was a boom in spiritualism. Bet you just guessed what happened during the Ouija session.
I don't know what I think about ghosts and spirits. I think I kind of believe but in what exactly I'd find hard to say. Over the summer, I borrowed a few books "by" Patience Worth. I also got some other library books about "the case" of Patience Worth; I returned most of these after just a short perusal because mostly people wanted to argue about whether Patience Worth was real or whether Pearl Curran made her up.
The advocates for spirit channeling pointed out that Pearl Curran had learning difficulties and had been left back a grade in school at least one year. Thus, they said, Curran herself was unlikely to have authored all these poems and stories and essays. The naysayers said that Pearl Curran was clearly unhinged and just pretending to be a medium to get attention for her writing, having failed in her singing career.
I say how could anyone know if Patience Worth was talking to Pearl Curran or not? Also, so what if some part of Curran's brain divided itself off and did interesting things, and that divided-off part needed another name? And a persona and a backstory? And even if we could know, what difference would that make?
If you are wondering what Patience Worth's writing was like, there's one of her poems below. As you can see, it's neither great nor awful. It's readable and there's some thought that's gone into it. I don't know that I myself, having never worked with verse, could write a poem as good as this one.
A blighted bud may hold
A sweeter message. than the loveliest flower.
For God hath kissed her wounded heart
And left a promise there.
A cloak of lies may clothe a golden truth.
The sunlight's warmth may fade its glossy black
To whitening green and prove the fault
Of weak and shoddy dye.
Oh, why let sorrow steel thy heart?
Thy bosom is but its foster mother,
The world its cradle, and the loving home
Its grave.
Weave sorrow on the loom of love
And warp the loom with faith.
A funny thing: As I searched the state library network for "Patience Worth," a couple of times I typed in "Mary Worth," a newspaper comic strip heroine from the days when my family got The Indianapolis News delivered in the afternoon.
Also, in comparing Pearl Curran to Jane Roberts, I became aware of this book, which I've requested from the library:
The website Public Domain Review has a fascinating essay on Pearl Curran / Patience Worth. You can find that HERE.
Next week: Something involving souls embodied in physical form
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