Margery launched her career as a spiritualist in the early years of her marriage to Crandon. Dr. Crandon wholeheartedly supported this endeavor and even had a carpenter build a special table for séances. The reasons Margery began holding séances are lost to history, but some say she relished her husband’s astonishment and admiration for the wonders she produced. Soon a voice began speaking through her—brash, joking, and irreverent. It said it was Walter.
Margery became a celebrity in Boston circles, and invitations to her séances were much sought after. Boston luminaries and colleagues of Roy Crandon were common attendees. A typical evening began at the dinner table, where the cook prepared excellent fare, and the doctor broke out wine from his cellar, which he’d managed to collect despite Prohibition. After the guests had enjoyed their sumptuous meal, the party trekked up to the fourth floor to sit around the séance table in a darkened room.
Dr. Crandon maintained careful contemporaneous records of all Margery’s séances, noting the extraordinary phenomena observed there: bells rang; tables tilted, and objects drifted. Walter whistled, cracked jokes, and delivered commentary in a gruff male voice. A Victrola played “Souvenir” and “Yes! We Have No Bananas.” Most startling of all, a live dove appeared and thumbprints were left in wax, prints that failed to match those of any person in attendance.
Margery was no shabby carnival act. She was a glamorous socialite. Her admirers included a magazine editor who wrote glowing accounts of her powers, and the press could not resist a story with so many enticing ingredients: a society beauty, a brilliant surgeon husband, and a dead brother. Unlike most spiritualists of the time, Margery did not charge attendees, which many took as a sign of her honesty and authenticity.
Yes, I had now decided that I would write about Margery, but how to tell the story? Should I have Margery narrate her tale? Should an omniscient voice hover over the whole story, giving the reader the inside scoop? I tried both approaches, and neither really took hold. I just wasn’t satisfied with either way of recounting this fascinating tale.
Then, surprise of surprises, Walter began speaking to me. He provided me with the first line of the novel: “Truth is, I understand Mina better than the whole lot of them, meaning those meddlers who wanted to know how the ‘Witch of Lime Street,’ as some dubbed her, acquired her psychic powers.” And I was off to the races. I won’t say the whole novel came as easily as that opening line, but it just made sense to have Walter tell the story. After all, he was a great wit who regularly appeared at Margery’s séances, and his salty repartee never failed to entertain the guests around the table. He and Margery had a close relationship, and he had access to her most private thoughts. Walter had a vested interest in Margery’s success, but he also worried about her.
Spiritualism had become wildly popular in the 1920s, but it had its detractors. Into the fray stepped the respected magazine Scientific American, which set out to test spiritualists and resolve the raging public debate. They offered $2,500 ($50,000 in today’s money!) for any medium who could produce a visible psychic manifestation under controlled conditions. The first several mediums the prize committee tested proved to be frauds. Then Dr. Crandon entered Margery into the contest. The committee expected her to be the first serious entrant.
The committee members devised all manner of tests, and Margery’s performance astounded them. But one member of the committee, Harry Houdini, insisted he be allowed to conduct his own tests. And Walter worried that Houdini would not give Margery a fair chance. The battle between Margery and Harry Houdini became the climax of my novel, and Walter did not disappoint at this crucial juncture.
I’m sure prospective readers wouldn’t want me to give away the ending, so I won’t. But in all my novels, I aim to stay true to the historical record. And the history of the epic battle between Margery and Houdini was worth all the struggles I encountered as I wrote the novel.
