Allen Putnam

author

Allen Putnam

1802–1887

A 19th-century minister, editor, and spiritualist writer, he explored some of the era’s biggest religious and supernatural debates in books that ranged from spirit communication to New England witchcraft. His work offers a vivid window into the restless intellectual world of antebellum and post–Civil War America.

1 Audiobook

Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism

Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism

by Allen Putnam

About the author

Allen Putnam (1802–1887) was an American writer and clergyman who graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1830. He also worked in education and journalism, and by 1842 he was identified as the editor of the New England Farmer in Boston.

He is best remembered for books on spiritualism and related religious controversies. Works associated with him include Spirit Works, Natty, a Spirit, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Witchcraft, and Miracle, Bible Marvel-Workers, New England Witchcraft Explained by Modern Spiritualism, and Post-Mortem Confessions.

Taken together, his career suggests a writer deeply engaged with the big questions of his century: how faith, science, and unexplained experience might fit together. His books now stand as part of the broader 19th-century American conversation about reform, belief, and the supernatural.