The feminist perspective of historian Gillian Gill (author of a previous biography of Agatha Christie) adds three-dimensionality to the life story of the controversial, charismatic founder of Christian Science. Neither unblemished saint nor unscrupulous manipulator, Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) emerges in this substantive reassessment as a powerful woman so constrained by conventional notions of femininity that she suffered decades of frustration and ill health before liberating herself with radical new ideas. Her emphasis on spiritual healing and women's empowerment made enemies virtually from the first publication of Science and Health in 1875; the schisms and lawsuits that plagued her church gave Eddy's opponents ammunition. In her thorough coverage of such touchy matters, Gill doesn't deny her subject's imperiousness and tendency to paranoia, but her sympathetic analysis stresses Eddy's gifts as a religious leader, administrator, and propagandist. The author gained access to the closely guarded Christian Science archives without ceding editorial control, and her scrupulous effort to freshly judge every issue justifies this trust. Gill's dry wit and first-person presence in the text's opinions ensure that her lengthy, exhaustively documented narrative doesn't feel unduly daunting or academic. --Wendy Smith


From Library Journal
Gill (Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries, LJ 1/92) writes about the amazingly resilient founder of the Christian Science Church, a woman who weathered indigence, a life-threatening fall, three marriages, various defections of students, and legal challenges. Gill, who was given access to church archives, provides an unbiased portrait of an extraordinary woman who exercised spiritual leadership at a time when women's concerns were supposed to be in the home, not the public arena. Unlike earlier biographers, Gill does not make Eddy into a saint or a devil?she sees Eddy's successes as an expression of her talents, making this book of interest to feminists and historians as well as those interested in Christian Science. Recommended for all libraries.?Carolyn M. Craft, Longwood Coll., Farmville, VACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Donada Peters is always an excellent choice to narrate lengthy or complex nonfiction books. Her talent for phrasing, pace, and pronunciation helps the listener organize and understand the material better. Peters aptly conveys the author's sympathy with Mary Baker Eddy while yet maintaining a general interest and historical perspective. Gill argues that Mrs. Eddy (1821-1910) was one of the most powerful women in America at the turn of the century. She traces in great detail Mrs. Eddy's transformation from a frail, impoverished widow and divorcee to the revered founder of the Christian Science Church and a national newspaper. Once again Donada Peters proves herself to be a talented and indefatigable reader. P.G. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Kirkus Reviews
Finally, a superb and balanced biography of the enigmatic American religious leader. Independent historian Gill (with a doctorate from Cambridge; Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries, not reviewed) spent years in legal negotiations with the Christian Science Church, trying to gain access to Mrs. Eddys voluminous correspondence. Her effort paid off: This is the best study to date of Eddy, surpassing other biographies which sought merely to debunk her as a charlatan and hysteric. Gill offers a scholars concern for placing Mrs. Eddy in the context of 19th-century American womens history. She claims that Eddy has been misunderstood in part because she subverted the well-worn pattern of Victorian female life: She was conventional in her twenties . . . [and] weak in her thirties, but indefatigably working in her sixties, famous in her seventies, [and] formidable in her eighties. Excessively shrewd in her business dealings and distant from her only son, Mrs. Eddy embodied qualities usually assigned to Victorian men. And Gills portrait of her is hardly all sweetness and light. She discusses Mrs. Eddys almost cruel dealings with some of her closest disciples, her increasing paranoia as a superannuated recluse, and her tendencies to borrow (plagiarize) ideas from mentors like Phineas Quimby. Even so, Mrs. Eddy emerges from Gills warts-and-all treatment as a transcendent and powerful figure worthy of respect from the most ultra-orthodox Christian Scientist. If theres any flaw here, its that Gill could have done more to explore19th-century religion. For example, she quotes from a letter in which the young Mary wrote of her adherence to a strict Grahamite diet. Gill never explains the origins or trendiness of Grahams reforms, and assumes (probably wrongly) that the adolescent Mary was a borderline anorexic. In all, though, a genuine achievement. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Books and Culture, September/October 2002
"Gillian Gill offers fresh perspectives on the faith's unconventional founder...'Mary Baker Eddy' is the best biography to date".

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In 1866, a frail, impoverished invalid, middle-aged, widowed and divorced, rose from her bed after a life-threatening fall, asked for her Bible, and took the first steps towards the founding of the Christian Science Church. Four decades later, she was revered as their leader by thousands of churches in the U.S. and Europe, had founded a national newspaper, and had become probably the most powerful woman in America. Gillian Gill, a non-Christian Scientist scholar, who managed to win unparalleled access to the Church archives, offers here an entirely new look at Mary Baker Eddy. For the first time readers will see the extraordinary leadership skills exercised by Mrs. Eddy despite the repressive forces facing women in her time. For the first time we learn the full story of the bizarre attack on Mrs. Eddy by Joseph Pulitzer and his New York World - alleging that she was at least senile and possibly not even alive. In this biography, we rediscover Mary Baker Eddy as a radical Christian thinker, pioneer in the recognition of mind/body connections, survivor of scandal, and target of both admiration and scorn from such eminent contemporaries as Mark Twain. Gillian Gill's sense of drama, her critical acumen, and her wit bring to life a brilliant religious leader whose message has new meaning in our time.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews

Finally, a superb and balanced biography of the enigmatic American religious leader. Independent historian Gill (with a doctorate from Cambridge; Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries, not reviewed) spent years in legal negotiations with the Christian Science Church, trying to gain access to Mrs. Eddy's voluminous correspondence. Her effort paid off: This is the best study to date of Eddy, surpassing other biographies which sought merely to debunk her as a charlatan and hysteric. Gill offers a scholar's concern for placing Mrs. Eddy in the context of 19th-century American women's history. She claims that Eddy has been misunderstood in part because she subverted the well-worn pattern of Victorian female life: "She was conventional in her twenties [and] weak in her thirties, but indefatigably working in her sixties, famous in her seventies, [and] formidable in her eighties." Excessively shrewd in her business dealings and distant from her only son, Mrs. Eddy embodied qualities usually assigned to Victorian men. And Gill's portrait of her is hardly all sweetness and light. She discusses Mrs. Eddy's almost cruel dealings with some of her closest disciples, her increasing paranoia as a superannuated recluse, and her tendencies to "borrow" (plagiarize) ideas from mentors like Phineas Quimby. Even so, Mrs. Eddy emerges from Gill's warts-and-all treatment as a transcendent and powerful figure worthy of respect from the most ultra-orthodox Christian Scientist. If there's any flaw here, it's that Gill could have done more to explore19th-century religion. For example, she quotes from a letter in which the young Mary wrote of her adherence to a strict Grahamite diet. Gill neverexplains the origins or trendiness of Graham's reforms, and assumes (probably wrongly) that the adolescent Mary was a borderline anorexic.