Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America

This fascinating book traces the growth of "theosophy," which together with both similar and competing movements, became New Age. Some of the people involved in this "evolution" (a term Madame Blavatsky would have despised!) were, to put it mildly, a bit eccentric.