Local history press Recollecting Nemasket is pleased to announce the release of its newest title, “Spiritualist Onset: Talking with the Dead by the Sea,” on Friday, August 5.

Written by historian Michael J. Maddigan and illustrated with numerous historic images, the volume explores the origins of Onset, Massachusetts, and the rapid rise and controversial decline of Spiritualism in “the Spiritualists’ Summer Home by the Sea”.

In 1877 a group of eastern Massachusetts Spiritualists, those who believed in communication with the dead, held a camp meeting in a wooded grove on the shores of Onset Bay in Wareham. Onset soon became a community consumed with Spiritualism, emerging during the Victorian era as one of America’s leading Spiritualist centers.

Michael Maddigan is the author of ten other local histories, including Onset & Point Independence. Recollecting Nemasket is a small independent press devoted to popularizing the history of southeastern Massachusetts.

Copies of Spiritualist Onset: Talking with the Dead by the Sea as well as other Recollecting Nemasket titles will be available at the Recollecting Nemasket booth Friday, August 5, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Middleboro’s Krazy Days and Saturday, August 6, from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Onset Blues Festival. Copies may also be ordered online at www. recollectingnemasket.com.