About this episode
In 1913, a St. Louis housewife named Pearl Curran sat down at a Ouija board and claimed to make contact with a spirit called Patience Worth —a seventeenth-century Englishwoman who spoke in archaic language and spun tales with uncanny speed. What began as a parlor amusement soon erupted into a literary mystery: novels, poems, and dialogues flowed effortlessly through Pearl, though she had no known training in such artistry. Was this the voice of a forgotten soul, the hidden genius of an unlikely medium, or just a big hoax, either for profit, or simply to cure boredom? SOURCES Litvag, Irving (1972) Singer in the Shadows: The Strange Story of Patience Worth. Macmillan, NY, USA. Yost, Casper S. (1916) Patience Worth: A Psychic Mystery. Henry Holt & Co. NY, USA. Prince, Walter Franklin (1927) The Case of Patience Worth. Boston Society for Psychic Research, Boston, USA. St. Louis GLobe Democrat (1915) The Mystery of Patience Worth. St. Louis Globe Democrat, Sun 7 Feb 1915, p41. USA. St. Louis GLobe Democrat (1915) The Mystery of Patience Worth. St. Louis Globe Democrat, Sun 14 Feb 1915, p41. USA. St. Louis GLobe Democrat (1915) The Mystery of Patience Worth. St. Louis Globe Democrat, Sun 21 Feb 1915, p41. USA. St. Louis GLobe Democrat (1915) The Mystery of Patience Worth. St. Louis Globe Democrat, Sun 28 Feb 1915, p41. USA. The New York Times (1916) Patience Worth A Psychic Mystery. The New York Times, Sun 27 Feb 1916, p69. NY, USA. ------ For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9 Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices