In the English Renaissance, poetry was imagined to inspire readers to enact cultural ideals, but its inspirational force was also linked to 'conjuration,' the dangerous practice of invoking spirits with words. Magical Imaginations explores how major writers of the period - including Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare - negotiated this troubling link between poetry and magic in their attempts to move and transform readers with the power of art. Through analyses of texts ranging from sermons and theological treatises to medical tracts and legal documents, Genevieve Guenther sheds new light on magic as a practice in early modern England. She demonstrates that magic was a highly pragmatic, even cynical endeavor with wide and unexpected influence even in Elizabethan and Jacobean politics. With this new understanding of early modern magic providing fresh context for compelling readings of classic works, Magical Imaginations reveals the central importance of magic to English literary history.