John George Hohman

Who is John George Hohman?

John George Hohman, who was active between 1802 and 1846, was a German-American printer, book seller and compiler of collections of herbal remedies, magical healings, and charms. He immigrated to the USA from Germany in 1802, settled in the area around Reading, Pennsylvania, in the Pennsylvania Dutch community, where he printed and sold broadsides, chapbooks and books and practised and instructed in the arts of folk magic and folk religion which became known as pow-wow.

Hohman's best known work is the collection of prayers and recipes for folk-healing titled Pow-Wows, or the Long Lost Friend, published in German in 1820 as Der Lange Verborgene Freund and in two English translations—the first in 1846 in a rather crude translation by Hohman himself and the second in 1856 by a different and more fluent translator. The name "Pow-Wows" was only added to the book in late 19th century reprints in the wake of the sudden popularity of Spiritualism in the United States, in which "Indian Spirit Guides" were frequently seen during seances.