author
Sciens
Known only by the pen name Sciens, this early 20th-century occult writer is remembered for a single intriguing book on spirit communication. The mystery around the author's real identity has lasted almost as long as the book itself.
1 Audiobook
How to speak with the dead
by Sciens
About the author
Sciens is the name attached to How to Speak with the Dead: A Practical Handbook, a book published in 1918 by E. P. Dutton & Co. Library catalogs and public-domain editions consistently list only that name, and some bibliographic records explicitly treat it as a pseudonym.
Very little biographical information about the person behind the name has been confirmed. What can be said with confidence is that the work was written in the language of practical instruction, presenting spiritualism and communication with the dead in a calm, methodical style that tried to sound persuasive and modern for its time.
Because the author's real identity does not appear to be firmly established in the sources available here, Sciens remains an obscure and somewhat anonymous figure in early spiritualist writing. That uncertainty is part of the appeal: the book survives, but the person behind it is still largely in shadow.