Pioneers of the Spiritual Reformation - Biographical Sketches (Paperback)

Anna Mary Howitt Watts (1824 1884) was a painter and writer, and the daughter of William Howitt (1792 1879), one of the subjects of this double biography. Justinus Kerner (1786 1862) was an inspiration to both Howitt and his daughter. A German poet, trained as a doctor, he became famous both as a patron of the arts and an early pioneer of the spiritualist movement. This account of Kerner's life is full of vivid descriptions of ghostly apparitions and supernatural events. Howitt, a popular writer and radical local politician who was raised a Quaker, became increasingly attracted to spiritualism after the deaths of two of his sons. Watts' book, written after her father's death and first published in 1883, is more than a memoir of a beloved parent. As a record of the beliefs of the spiritualists it provides essential information about early Victorian attitudes to this world and beyond.