Jap Herron: A Novel Written from the Ouija Board
In this paranormal novel originally published in 1917, Jasper “Jap” Herron rises out of poverty to become a central figure in his small Missouri town.
Several years after Mark Twain's death in 1910, Emily Grant Hutchings claimed that Twain dictated this novel from the beyond, letter by letter, over a Ouija board.
When the Twain estate discovered the book, they took Hutchings to court, demanding she either declare herself a fraud or surrender all profits and rights to the estate.
The lawsuit was dropped when Hutchings agreed to cease publication and destroy the remaining unsold books—but she never retracted her claims. In the introduction of this new edition of Jap Herron, Hutchings recounts spirits meddling with the story, apparitions sent by Twain to haunt the medium’s dreams, and insights into Twain’s postmortem personality.
Was Jap Herron the work of Mark Twain or a scam that capitalized on the heightened belief in the paranormal during the early 1900s? Yes or no?