A private life and an unusual writing practice
Weiss was born in Ohio around 1834 and later lived in St. Louis, Missouri. Much of the surviving account of her writing comes from her husband, Adolph M. Weiss. In letters published by psychical researcher James H. Hyslop in 1913, he described her upbringing in a strictly religious farming family, her limited formal schooling and her interest in vivid dreams and Spiritualist inquiry. These are a close relative’s recollections, rather than a complete independent record of her early life.
According to her husband, she wrote privately, often with a pencil in a darkened room, sometimes continuing until exhausted. She regarded the words as dictated by spirits and did not work as a professional medium offering messages to clients. The dialogues in Journeys date its experiences to 1892–94. By 1901, a St. Louis newspaper was describing her manuscript and drawings of supposed Martian flowers, which had remained within her family. The book appeared in 1903, shortly before her death in 1904. A related work, Decimon Huydas, followed posthumously in 1906.
A mission to Ento
The held Bradford Press edition presents Mars as Ento, a world visited under the direction of a spirit band led by Carl De L’Ester. The preface is written in that guide’s voice and attributes the botanical illustrations to another spirit, Aaron Poole, working through Weiss. Geography, cities, plants, languages and social customs accumulate through conversations between the visitor, her guides and the inhabitants. The mission is not simply to explore: it seeks to teach the Entoans that life continues beyond bodily death.
