Patience Worth: The Ouija Board Medium and Literary Ghost

The Enigma of Patience Worth

• 💡 In 1916, a New York Times article highlighted Patience Worth, a purported psychic mystery and genius channeled through a Ouija board by housewife Pearl Curran.
• 🎯 Pearl Curran, who had a history of academic struggles, began communicating with Patience Worth in 1913, who claimed to be a spirit from England who died in the late 1600s.
• 🔑 Patience Worth produced a prolific body of work, including novels and poems, which were critically acclaimed and even recognized by literary committees.

Skepticism and Alternative Explanations

• 🧠 Critics questioned the authenticity of Patience Worth, pointing to the language used, which experts described as a mix of historical periods and invented terms, not authentic 17th-century English.
• 🔍 Some psychologists, like Charles E. Corey, suggested that the communications were a manifestation of Pearl Curran's subconscious personality or dissociative identity disorder.
• 📚 Research revealed a character named Patience Worth in Mary Johnston's 1900 novel "To Have and To Hold," suggesting Pearl may have adopted the name from this source.

Pearl Curran's Literary Career and Identity

• 🎭 Pearl Curran's story "Rosa Elvaro and Trante," published under her own name, gained significant attention and was adapted into a film, suggesting she may have used the Patience Worth persona to gain recognition.
• ✍️ The narrative explores how women in history, like the Brontë sisters and George Eliot, adopted pseudonyms to be taken seriously in a male-dominated literary world.
• 💰 Despite critical acclaim, Pearl and her husband reportedly lost money promoting Patience Worth's work, including a magazine dedicated to her writings.

The History and Mystique of the Ouija Board

• 📜 The Ouija board, commercialized in the 1890s, became a popular novelty during the Spiritualist Movement, with businessmen patenting and mass-producing the talking boards.
• ⚠️ Over time, a set of