Barbara M. Weisberg

Barbara Weisberg is a writer and former television producer whose book Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York focuses on a remarkable divorce trial in the 1860s that exposed upper-crust New York society and its secrets. Her book Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism traces the lives and careers of the enigmatic Fox sisters, founders of nineteenth-century century American Spiritualism. Weisberg also has written four children’s books and produced programming for network and cable television, including co-creating the long-running sitcom "Charles in Charge."

Weisberg received her M.Phil. in American Studies from Yale University and her M.F.A. from Brooklyn College, where she was awarded the MacArthur Scholarship in Poetry on Allen Ginsberg’s nomination. She received the D. Scott Rogo Award from the Parapsychology Foundation for her work on the history of Spiritualism, and the Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Grant for Creative Writers and Artists from the American Antiquarian Society to pursue her research on the Fox sisters. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Authors Guild, Biographers International. She was elected to AAS membership in October 1998.