author
Michael Sage
1863–1931
Drawn to the strange borderland between science and spiritualism, this early-20th-century French writer explored psychic research with curiosity and a cool, questioning eye. His best-known work on the medium Leonora Piper captures a moment when séances, skepticism, and serious investigation all collided.
1 Audiobook
Mrs. Piper & the Society for Psychical Research
by Michael Sage
About the author
Michel Sage (1863–1931), sometimes listed in English editions as Michael Sage, was a French author whose surviving bibliography centers on spiritualism and psychical research. Records from the Bibliothèque nationale de France list works including Mme. Piper et la société anglo-américaine pour les recherches psychiques, later translated into English as Mrs. Piper & the Society for Psychical Research, as well as later books such as L'Ascension cosmique de l'homme and Le Spiritisme, problème scientifique.
His most widely known book examines the famous American medium Leonora Piper and the investigations surrounding her by the Society for Psychical Research. The English edition was translated by Noralie Robertson and published with a preface by Sir Oliver Lodge, which suggests Sage's work reached readers interested in the era's serious debates over mediumship, evidence, and the limits of scientific explanation.
Very little biographical detail appears to be easily confirmed from the sources available here, so he remains a somewhat elusive figure today. Even so, his work offers a useful window into a time when psychical research was discussed not just as entertainment, but as a subject some writers and investigators hoped could be approached with discipline and reason.