Maggi Smith-Dalton

"A History of Spiritualism and the Occult in Salem: The Rise of Witch City," Maggi Smith-Dalton's newest book, to be released August 2012 by The History Press http://www.historypress.net

_________________________

Maggi Smith-Dalton began her singing career in cabarets and nightclubs and has maintained a parallel career as a historian most of her life. With her husband, Jim, she tours nationwide as a concert artist.

She has performed as a soloist with large domestic and international choirs, recorded five albums to date and hosted an NPR public radio station classical music show.

Maggi is a prizewinning short story writer and has a long history of writing feature articles and columns for magazines and newspapers. In 2010, she began to write a weekly history column for the Boston Globe (boston.com).

She holds a master's degree in American Studies, and her current scholarly work focuses on historic civic rituals that incorporate music as a primary element, a subject on which she has presented domestically and abroad. Her first book of Salem history, Stories and Shadows From Salem's Past, was published by The History Press in 2010.

Maggi is usually running like the White Queen as president of the Institute for Music, History and Cultural Traditions, which runs two public programs: the American History and Music Project and the Salem History Society. In 2010, she was elected to the council of the New England American Studies Association.

She loves to garden and usually can be found muttering to herself as she happily rakes, plants, feeds and waters various living things, including herself. The squirrels, it is rumored, are used to her soliloquies by now, although one wonders what the neighbors think.