Rediscovering Pearl Curran: Solving the mystery of Patience Worth
Description
This study disproves previous spiritualistic theories regarding the nature of Pearl Curran's (1883--1937) automatic writing. Previous critics have argued that as a writer, Pearl Curran channeled the spirit of a seventeenth-century English housewife named Patience Worth. Since the 'appearance' of Patience Worth through Pearl Curran's Ouija board in 1913, critics have described the production of the literature as supernatural, mysterious, and unexplainable. Chapter Two explores the historical context of Spiritualism in America as an influential factor in perpetuating the Patience Worth mystery as well as the personal and gender bias of the three primary critics, Casper S. Yost, Walter Franklin Prince, and Irving Litvag Chapter Three reveals the problematic nature of Pearl Curran's writing process. The gradual transformation of her writing method from direct Ouija board diction to automatic and conscious writing supports the argument that she was not channeling a spirit but refining her own creative process. Equally important is the gradual transformation in the style of her writing, which changed from a troublesome amalgam of Old English into an easily accessible version of modern English that resembled Pearl Curran's own speech Chapter Four uncovers previously ignored parallels between the personalities of Patience Worth and Pearl Curran that strongly suggest that Pearl Curran was (consciously or not) using the persona of Patience Worth as a personality mask. The chapter illuminates Pearl Curran's psychological struggle to develop a feminine sexual identity and to suppress her professional ambition Chapter Five explores Pearl Curran's overlooked and suppressed literary talent. Previous critics have described her as uneducated or semi-literate, yet a closer look at her background and her 'conscious' writing attempts reveal that she was highly intelligent, well-read, and familiar with the craft of writing fiction. Pearl Curran's consciously written story, 'Rosa Alvaro, Entrante,' shows that she was intellectually and creatively capable of producing the Patience Worth material and had a similar penchant for dialect. Most important, however, are the autobiographical parallels in the story that suggest that Pearl Curran, like her protagonist, Mayme, consciously adopted a more exciting and attractive secondary personality in order to save herself from lack of advancement and depression