The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet

The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet

by Lyn Millner
The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet

The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet

by Lyn Millner

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Overview

Was Cyrus Teed a visionary or villain, savior or two-bit charlatan? In The Allure of Immortality, Lyn Millner weaves the many bizarre strands of Teed's life and those of his followers, the Koreshans, into a riveting story of angels, conmen, angry husbands, yellow journalism, and ultimately, hope.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813064406
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Publication date: 09/10/2019
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 354
Sales rank: 676,127
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lyn Millner is associate professor of journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University. She has written and produced stories for NPR’s Morning Edition, the New York Times, USA Today, the Miami Herald, Oxford American, and others.

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Prologue: The Man in the Bathtub 1

1 The Illumination 12

2 Inside the Earth: New York, 1869-1886 24

3 It Must Be Good; It's Made in a Church 40

4 The Watchmen of Chicago 50

5 Opportunity 70

6 The White City 96

7 The Homesteader 117

8 Under the Canopy of Heaven 130

9 Our Cosmic Egg 144

10 In the Outside World 168

11 At Last 180

12 Fight 207

13 City of the Blessed 221

14 After Koresh 244

15 Florida Forever 261

Afterword 280

Acknowledgments 287

List of Abbreviations 289

Notes 291

Bibliography 319

Index 325

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Brilliantly written and strangely moving. Millner has resurrected the lost history of a cult devoted to a utopian vision as pure as it was outlandish."—Steve Almond, author of God Bless America: Stories



"A fascinating look at the American search for meaning and ultimate answers. Millner writes with grace and makes history an adventure."—Dan Wakefield, author of New York in the Fifties



"Teed may have wanted a shiny new world, but what Millner provides is a guide to an old lost one, a picture of a vanished century when science, religion, journalism, and social movements collided in an unending, and totally fascinating, brawl."—Madeleine Blais, author of In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle



"Those seeking an understanding of what makes otherwise sensible individuals willing to give up everything in service of the apparently outlandish notions of a charismatic true believer like Teed will find this carefully researched volume satisfying and memorable."—Les Standiford, author of Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean



"A riveting tale of a long-neglected part of Florida's history. Written with style and panache, this well-researched book is a terrific read."—Susan and Martin Tolchin, coauthors of Pinstripe Patronage: Political Favoritism from the Clubhouse to the White House and Beyond



"Millner's marvelous chronicle of the peripatetic and resolute Koreshans is provocative, intriguing, and so much stranger than fiction. You may pause, you may shake your head, you may throw up your arms, but you will not put down this book until you're done."—John Dufresne, author of No Regrets, Coyote: A Novel

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