Mortimer and the Witches : A History of Nineteenth-Century Fortune Tellers / Marie Carter.
2024
BF1861 .C37 2024
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Title
Mortimer and the Witches : A History of Nineteenth-Century Fortune Tellers / Marie Carter.
Author
Carter, Marie, author.
ISBN
9781531506261
1531506267
1531506267
Published
New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2024]
Copyright
©2024
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (208 p.) : 25 b/w illustrations
Item Number
10.1515/9781531506261 doi
Call Number
BF1861 .C37 2024
Dewey Decimal Classification
133.3
Summary
The neglected histories of 19th-century NYC's maligned working-class fortune tellers and the man who set out to discredit themUnder the pseudonym Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B., humor writer Mortimer Thomson went undercover to investigate and report on the fortune tellers of New York City's tenements and slums. When his articles were published in book form in 1858, they catalyzed a series of arrests that both scandalized and delighted the public. But Mortimer was guarding some secrets of his own, and in many ways, his own life paralleled the lives of the women he both visited and vilified. In Mortimer and the Witches, author Marie Carter examines the lives of these marginalized fortune tellers while also detailing Mortimer Thomson's peculiar and complicated biography.Living primarily in the poor section of the Lower East Side, nineteenth-century fortune tellers offered their clients answers to all questions in astrology, love, and law matters. They promised to cure ailments. They spoke of loved ones from beyond the grave. Yet Doesticks saw them as the worst of the worst evil-doers. His investigative reporting aimed to stop unsuspecting young women from seeking the corrupt soothsaying advice of these so-called clairvoyants and to expose the absurd and woefully inaccurate predictions of these "witches."Marie Carter views these stories of working-class, immigrant women with more depth than Doesticks's mocking articles would allow. In her analysis and discussion, she presents them as three-dimensional figures rather than the caricatures Doesticks made them out to be. What other professions at that time allowed women the kind of autonomy afforded by fortune-telling? Their eager customers, many of whom were newly arrived immigrants trying to navigate life in a new country, weren't as naive and gullible as Doesticks made them out to be. They were often in need of guidance, seeking out the advice of someone who had life experience to offer or simply enjoying the entertainment and attention.Mortimer and the Witches offers new insight into the neglected histories of working-class fortune tellers and the creative ways that they tried to make a living when options were limited for them.
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Access limited to authorized users.
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text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Mrz 2024).
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
CONTENTS
Introduction
1. Madame Morrow
2. Madame Clifton
3. Madame Prewster
4. Madame Widger
5. Mr. Grommer
6. Mrs. Hayes
7. The Gipsy Girl
8. Mrs. Seymour
Concluding Remarks
Epilogue: Ethel Parton
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
CONTENTS
Introduction
1. Madame Morrow
2. Madame Clifton
3. Madame Prewster
4. Madame Widger
5. Mr. Grommer
6. Mrs. Hayes
7. The Gipsy Girl
8. Mrs. Seymour
Concluding Remarks
Epilogue: Ethel Parton
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX