The Love-Life of Dr. Kane; containing The Correspondence, and a History of the Acquaintance, Engagement, and Secret Marriage between Elisha K. Kane and Margaret Fox.
New York: Carleton, 1866. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 288pp. Original brown cloth gilt-lettered on spine. B/w frontisportrait. One fold-out plate reproducing Kane's letters. An account of the unlikely romance between Elisha Kent Kane (1820 – 1857), explorer, medical officer in the United States Navy and member of two Arctic expeditions to rescue the explorer Sir John Franklin, and Margaret Fox (1833–1893) one of the notorious Fox sisters, whose table-rapping séances effectively gave birth to the modern Spiritualist movement. In 1852, Kane met the Fox sisters, an although he was convinced that they were frauds, he became enamored with the middle sister, Margaret. Margaret would later claim that she and Kane were married in secret in 1856, took on his surname, and challenged his will. Cloth a bit rubbed and darkened overall with some minor discolouration, chafing to all edges and points, upper corners bumped, spine ends a bit frayed, half inch tear to cloth at front upper gutter, endpapers a bit discoloured and foxed, owner's name on front endpaper, newspaper clipping regarding the death of the "last of the Fox sisters" glued to front pastedown, offsetting to title-page from frontis, occasional scattered foxing, otherwise a solid unmarked Good + copy. Item #47785
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