In 1917, an unpublished book by the American writer Mark Twain was about to be published. The really curious thing is that the author had died in 1910, and no, it was not a posthumous novel. According to two strange women, the writer himself had dictated the work to them from beyond, through the Ouija board.
The novel in question, Jap Herron, was not actually the first book that had come “from the other world.” Throughout the 19th century, a time deeply interested in everything that had to do with spiritualism, the so-called “spiritual literature” proliferated, supposedly dictated by ghosts.. Join us to learn more about the fascinating world of books written from the Ouija board.
Spiritualist literature or books written from the Ouija board
Since the beginning of the 19th century, with Romanticism in all its splendor, there was a clear rebellion towards a society too focused on empiricism and science. Interest in things that had no logical explanation began to increase; especially since the staging of the Fox sisters (who called themselves mediums), The fascination with the world of the dead and the afterlife became an obsession for the 19th century bourgeoisie and aristocracy..
In fact, spiritualist meetings were very fashionable, in which wealthy people gathered (either out of sincere belief or out of pure curiosity) and entertained themselves by invoking the spirits and then joking or reflecting on what they had revealed.
At the end of the 19th century, the Ouija board began to gain great fame, an essential element for a meeting of this nature, which was, supposedly, the vehicle through which the spirit in question manifested itself to those gathered there. Let’s look at the history of the Ouija board a little before talking about the “ghostly” literature it unleashed.
The origins of the Ouija or “good luck”
Robert Murch, a specialist in the history of the Ouija board, places the United States as the birthplace of this unique object. And, despite the fact that interest in spiritualism had skyrocketed throughout the Western world, It was in North America where it acquired an undeniable thrust, perhaps due to the influence of the shamanic traditions of the former slaves of Africa..
The humble classes also participated, although spiritualism was mainly in fashion among the highest social stratum. Abraham Lincoln’s own wife, for example, held a seance in the White House to contact her recently deceased son. Thus, while esoteric activity was seen by some as mere entertainment, for others it meant the only means of establishing contact with missing loved ones.
And, as always, a profitable business was made out of necessity and pain. The individual in question was Charles Kennard, a clever businessman who soon realized the profitability of an object that “allowed” people to contact the afterlife.. This is how the Ouija board was born, inspired by ancient spirit boards. Apparently, the name was dictated by the same board to a medium, a relative of one of the investors, and means “good luck” in an unknown language.
Ghosts speak… and they also write
The patent of the official Ouija board in the 1880s began an extraordinary consumption of this element. It was then that the stories, tales and novels supposedly dictated by the deceased to the mediums who contacted them began to appear.
In 1882 one of the first writings of “spiritualist literature” appeared. It was a supposed memoir, dictated to the New York medium Cora Scott by Ouina, a young Native American who died tragically in her adolescence. The story, which was published as Ouina’s canoe and Christmas Offering: Filled with Flowers for the Darlings of Earth, was a song of peace and love (very timely to sell at Christmas) and, at the same time, a terrible testimony of the unfortunate life of the dead girl.
Four years later a curious story appeared that had the very long title of Historical Revelation of the relationship between Christianity and paganism since the disintegration of the Roman Empire. The medium who had transcribed the ghost’s words was one Thomas Cushman Buddington, and the author spirit, none other than the Roman emperor Julian!
The notorious case of Mark Twain’s postmortem novel
After these first examples, spiritualist literature only grew, cultivated especially by American spiritualist circles and, specifically, by the community of mediums based in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Emily Grant Hutchings and Lola Hays belonged precisely to this community, who claimed that since 1915 they had been communicating with the writer Mark Twain, who had died five years earlier. According to his testimony, The late author had been dictating to them through the Ouija board a new novel, titled Jap Herron, which the two women intended to publish as a testimony to Twain from the afterlife..
The case was famous, since it was the first work of spiritualist literature “written” by a renowned and internationally famous author. Twain’s daughter, Clara Clemens, set the wheels in motion to stop the publication of the work, which she considered a mockery of her father’s memory. However, the two Saint Louis mediums alleged that Twain was saddened by this and that he “suffered” from beyond the grave at not seeing his work published.
In the end, Clara Clemens won the lawsuit, and Emily and Lola were forced to give up publication and destroy all copies of the work in their possession. Therefore, Jap Herron is practically lost and it is frankly difficult to find copies of this unique novel.
The book was examined to determine if the language and style were Twain’s. The verdict was quite surprising: the narrative is strikingly similar to that of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (the author’s most famous works), although of lower quality. The topic continues to cause rivers of ink to flow even today.
After the nineteenth-century spiritualist fever: the 20th century
After the spiritualist fever that shook the 19th century, spiritualist literature seemed to decline, perhaps because people no longer believed in it and it was no longer a guaranteed bestseller.. In any case, the “genre” continued its journey. In 1944, the Brazilian medium Chico Xavier (1910-2002) published a series of stories supposedly dictated by the ghost of André Luiz, in which the story Our Home stood out. All of this is testimony to the interest that the afterlife has always aroused (and continues to arouse) among the living.
