author
Allen Putnam
1802–1887
Drawn to séances, spirit communication, and the mysteries of New England’s past, this 19th-century writer brought the Spiritualist movement into conversation with history. His best-known work revisits the Salem witch trials through a distinctly Victorian lens.
1 Audiobook
Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism
by Allen Putnam
About the author
Allen Putnam was an American writer associated with the 19th-century Spiritualist movement. Catalog and library records consistently identify him as living from 1802 to 1887, and his surviving books show a strong interest in mediumship, mesmerism, spirit communication, and the supernatural as subjects for serious discussion.
His best-known book is Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism, in which he reinterprets the Salem witch trials through ideas popular among Spiritualists of his time. Other works linked to him include Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Witchcraft, and Miracle, Natty, a Spirit, and Post-Mortem Confessions, which together suggest a writer fascinated by the border between religion, psychology, and the unseen world.
Some biographical details appear in memorial and historical references, including that he studied at Harvard Divinity School and was later buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston. Because detailed modern biographical sources are limited, he is remembered mainly through his books and his place in the long 19th-century debate over spiritual experience and the supernatural.