Emma Hardinge Britten

During this period, she was also exposed to sexism and economic discrimination through her involvement with a manipulative member of the society whom she later termed "a baffled sensualist."

Although there is little reliable information on this London occult group, it is suspected that Emma received the name Hardinge from this society, the surname she kept throughout her adult life.

Perhaps the culmination of her oratorical career was a speech delivered on 14 April 1865, as a response to President Lincoln's assassination only thirty-six hours prior.

In 1866, The Saturday Review wrote a satirical critique of Hardinge's speeches, describing her style as "bloated eloquence" and her content as "bunkum.” As a chronicle of her active religious participation, Hardinge published the book Modern American Spiritualism (1870), a huge "encyclopedia" of the people and events associated with the early days of the movement.

In 1872, Emma attempted to start a magazine, The Western Star, however, after a series of devastating fires in Boston, her impoverished clients dropped their subscriptions.

She also edited a book called Art Magic or Mundane, Sub-Mundane and Super-Mundane Spiritism: A Treatise in Three parts and Twenty Three Sections on the subject of Theosophy.

It was written anonymously and published in 1876 by 'the author' with the help of 'his [sic] highly esteemed English friend, Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten'.