Eirenaeus Philalethes was reputed to have performed miracles-restoring an aged lady's teeth and hair, bringing a withered peach tree to fruit-and was also rumored to possess a philosophers' stone. That he was merely a mythical creation didn't diminish his public reputation a whit. This is the story of the man behind the myth, George Starkey.

Reputed to have performed miraculous feats in New Englandrestoring the hair and teeth to an aged lady, bringing a withered peach tree to fruit - Eirenaeus Philalethes was also rumored to be an adept, possessor of the alchemical philosophers' stone. That the man was merely a mythical creation didn't diminish his reputation a whit - his writings were spectacularly successful, read by Leibniz, esteemed by Newton and Boyle, voraciously consumed by countless readers. Gehennical Fire is the story of the man behind the myth, George Starkey. A work of meticulous scholarship, Gehennical Fire is both an absorbing intellectual biography and an intriguing exploration of alchemy and medical science in the seventeenth century.