Leigh Eric Schmidt is Edward C. Mallinckrodt University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of numerous books,
including Heaven’s Bride: The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock, American Mystic, Scholar, Sexologist, Martyr, and Madwoman, Hearing
Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment, and Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays.