Manchester, December 5th, 1897

From the introductory matter to Thomas Olman Todd's Hydesville: The Story of the Rochester Knockings, Which Proclaimed the Advent of Modern Spiritualism (1905) (available here):

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Manchester, December 5, 1897
Mr. T. O. Todd

Dear Sir,

Having been a sad invalid since June of this year, and still suffering, I do not quite remember whether I have or not written to you on the subject to which I desire to devote this poor scrawl. If I have not done so hitherto -- permit me to say, -- altho' I have been obliged from severe illness to suspend my platform work and writings, I am as much interested in the earnest desire to help the progress of Spiritualism as I have been in my long years of past devotion to that cause.

In consequence of my sad illness I have been obliged to refuse my kind American Friends' urgent invitation to attend their Grand Celebration at Rochester, N.Y., next June.

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I am most anxious to do something for our noble cause, [and] [enquirers] will necessarily want to have some special accounts of the first opening of the Spiritual Movement and the history of the poor Fox Family and their immediate connection with the famous "Rochester Knockings." All this I, who knew the Fox Family and all the circumstances of the case personally and intimately, have written and published in full detail in my widely circulated work "Modern American Spiritualism."--But this work consists of 560 pages, and tho' bought by thousands of American Spiritualists, I should not know in England where to turn to find a copy except in my own bookcase.

Now what I propose is this: In the first hundred pages is the full and entire history of the movement; the life and labours of A. J. Davis,--the life, sufferings, and bitter persecutions of the poor Foxes, and all their early trials; friends, foes, and all connected with them. Why cannot you . . . take those hundred pages, condense them, and make a splendid pamphlet of them?

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Sincerely yours, EMMA HARDINGE BRITTEN.

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Todd's work is of course an attempt to do just that.

But if this is not the terminal sadness of the forgotten pioneer, urging a return to the material she finds so formative, and more importantly urging a different way, an approach that does not recapitulate her errors, that does not leave the truth, as it were, stranded in a backwater .... what is it? Yes, EHB is as self-promoting here as ever. Yes, her "sacrifice for the cause" and "present at the events recorded" flags are positively dirty from the number of times she's wrapped herself in them.

But, even so, is this not the voice of the adherent, the true believer?