Pearl Curran & Patience Worth
What’s better than a good ghost story? A story written by a ghost. And that’s exactly what we’re covering on tonight’s blog. But, this isn’t the first time we’ve told a story like this. When Margretta Greene published a story written beyond the grave from Maude Carew. But tonight we turn to a different story, and a different ghost: the story of Patience Worth.
Pearl Curran was a St. Louis housewifein the early 20th century. Pearl was, according to her own words, "undereducated" and dropped out of school at the age of 13. She married her husband, John, at the age of 24 and by 1913 she was still a jobless, childless housewife without any notable hobbies or passions. However, she did get her kicks one way: ouija board sessions and seances. She began in the early 1910s, and in 1913...something incredible happened to her.
It all began on July 8th, 1913 when, during a ouija session she took down a strange message: "Many moons ago I lived. Again I come--Patience Worth my name."
The correspondence started and would eventually lead to thousands and thousands of words between the two women, one alive and one dead, on two sides of the ouija board. Patience claimed she was the restless spirit of a woman from around the 17th century who had sailed from England to America and was eventually killed by Native Americans. Pearl stated that when she and Patience communed, she felt that Pearl literally implanted images in her mind so she could see, as well as read, her story. Rumors grew around the neighborhood and then St. Louis and then nationwide and Patience and Pearl's relationship was soon one of the hottest stories out there.
You see, Patience had dreams before her life was cut short. She fancied herself a writer and a poet. She was never able to publish any of the work, but with Pearl on the other side of the ouija board she finally had an outlet for the words she had kept to herself for nearly a century. Together, the pair would write and publish an astounding seven books, multiple volumes of poetry, short stories, and even plays. Their connection would also span decades, and Pearl began to travel the nation giving talks, sharing her books, and having patience parties.
During Patience parties, Pearl would, at first, spell out words on her ouija board (with Patience leading the planchette) and her husband would record them on paper in shorthand. While she was spelling, impressively, Pearl would hold conversations with the audience, smoke cigarettes, and generally seem not to pay attention to where the planchette was traveling. Audiences were, in short, captivated. The works produced were of a strangely high literary caliber, not exactly what you would expect from a middle school dropout who was never known for being curious or writing anything at all.
If you’re thinking all of these words were transcribed from a ouija board, don’t worry. Eventually Pearl and Patience’s relationship transcended the board and Pearl was able to hear her words and transcribe her work by simply entering a meditative state.
By the 1920s, their popularity had slowly become less popular. Though the Currands had some financial success from the Patience parties and publications, by the 1920s they were struggling to make ends meet. In 1922, things got even worse. John died and Pearl gave birth to their biological child six months later (the couple also had an adopted child). With no husband, no job, no money coming in, and two children Pearl was, in a word, worried. She decided to start arranging appearances at private parties for a fee, as well as traveling the country performing for folks on the road. Pearl would eventually marry twice more and would be able to call forth
Patience for the rest of her life, which ended in 1937. One week before her death, Patience warned Pearl. Despite being largely healthy, even at the time of Pearl's warning, just over a week later she would be dead of pneumonia at the age of 54.
So was the phenomenon real? Well, no one was able to fully disprove it if that’s what you mean. But, of course, there were theories. Some believed she was a talented liar and had been working on her image and the launch of Patience for years. Others believed she may have suffered from dissociative identity disorder, others claim it was her first husband who was the mastermind (and author) behind it all. Or maybe, it was all true.
I’ll leave you with one of her poems, Dead, All Dead!:
Dead, all dead! The earth, the fields, lie stretched
In sleep like weary toilers overdone.
The valleys gape like toothless age,
Besnaggled by dead trees. The hills,
Like bony jaws, whose flesh hath dropped,
Stand grinning at the deathy day.
The lily, too, hath cast her shroud,
And clothed her as a brown-robed nun.
The moon doth, at the even's creep,
Reach forth her whitened hands and sooth
The wrinkled brow of earth to sleep.
Ah, whither flown the fleecy summer clouds?
To bank, and fall to earth in billowed light,
And paint the winter's brown to spangled white.
Where too have flown the happy songs,
Long died away with sighing
On the shore-wave's crest?
Will they take Echo as their Guide,
And bound from hill to hill at this,
The sleepy time of earth,
And waken forest song 'mid naked waste?—
Ah, slumber, slumber on! 'Tis with
A loving hand He scattereth the snow,
To nestle young spring's offering,
That dying Earth shall live anew.
Thanks to EM for the blogstonishing suggestion!
The header image depicts A ouija board manufactured by the Kennard Novelty Company of Baltimore circa 1890 and was likely similar to the one Pearl used. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer.
