author
Reuben Briggs Davenport
d. 1932
Best remembered for a sharp, skeptical look at 19th-century spiritualism, this little-known American writer moved between controversy, fiction, and social commentary. His work has survived largely through one unusual and still-discussed book on the Fox sisters.
1 Audiobook
The Death-Blow to Spiritualism: Being the True Story of the Fox Sisters
by Reuben Briggs Davenport
About the author
Reuben Briggs Davenport was an American author born in 1852 who died in 1932. Reliable catalog and public-domain sources confirm him as the author of The Death-Blow to Spiritualism (1888), a skeptical account of the Fox sisters and the rise of modern spiritualism, and records of his books also connect him with the fiction title A Prankish Pair and the later novel The Nobler Love.
His best-known work is The Death-Blow to Spiritualism, a book that stands out for its direct challenge to spiritualist claims at a time when séances and spirit communication drew wide public attention. That title has remained the clearest reason his name is still remembered today.
Beyond that, the surviving online record is fairly thin, so it is safest to picture him as a versatile late-19th- and early-20th-century writer whose published work ranged from polemic to fiction. I wasn't able to confirm a trustworthy portrait from the sources I checked, so no profile image is included.