"Affection craves legend and relics."

2012 has come and gone, so where is the book?

Enquiring minds may have that question, and the answer is the writing of the book should be done by the end of April. Once that is done, it will have to be proofread and all kinds of permissions granted. This is a long way of saying that maybe it will be ready for Christmas 2013. Remember nothing says Christmas like a book about Mrs. Eddy and P. P. Quimby. (Actually, Quimby did look a bit like Santa Claus.)

The text is now well over 1,000 pages so it will not be for the casual reader.  I appreciate the many who have asked about it and am as eager as they are to see the book finally in printed form.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask them now. This has been a tremendously time consuming venture (and still is), but it has been a labor of love.

Due out in 2012?

The paucity of recent posts has largely been due to my work on completing Part I of the proposed book below. My goal is to have the writing and research for Part I completed by the end of this year, with publication of the book following sometime in 2012. That is the goal at least. Based on the current manuscript, which is over 95% completed, I anticipate Part I to have over 700 pages, including over 1,000 footnotes. To comport with scholarly writing customs of today, Phineas Quimby and Mary Baker Eddy will be referred to simply as Quimby and Eddy.

While a great many biographies of Mary Baker Eddy have been published (and virtually none on P.P. Quimby), none have focused on this debate in the manner that this book will. The book will have a huge amount of new information on everyone mentioned, and it will cover a great many areas that have not been covered by prior historians.

Here is the proposed title and an outline of the chapters:

 

The Phineas Quimby - Mary Baker Eddy Debate and the Fall in Lynn: A New Look Based on Original Documents

—PART ONE—

Chapter 1: “How Biographical Treatments of Quimby and Eddy Have Influenced the Debate.” This gives a look at how histories of Quimby and Eddy have affected the debate.

Chapter 2: “Animal Magnetism and Charles Poyen.” This includes a brief history of Franz Anton Mesmer and his later followers, focusing on Charles Poyen in America.

Chapter 3: “James Rogers Newton and Other Forgotten Healers of the Mid-Nineteenth Century.” This places Quimby and Eddy in a context of non-medical healing that has been virtually ignored by scholars in this debate.

Chapter 4: “Phineas Parkhurst Quimby: Early Years 1802-September 1862.” This looks at Quimby before he met Eddy.

Chapter 5: “Mary Baker Eddy: Early Years 1821- September 1862.” This looks at Eddy before she met Quimby.

Chapter 6: “Warren Felt Evans: Early Years 1817- December 1862.” This looks at Evans before the year he is believed to have met Quimby.

Chapter 7: “Portland and Lynn: October 1862-January 1866.” This looks at the years when Eddy was connected to Quimby.

—PART TWO—

Chapter 8: “1866 and the Fall in Lynn.” This looks at an important year.

Chapter 9: “Years of Seclusion: 1867-1874.” This looks at Eddy before Science and Health was published. Evans published two books on mental healing during this time period.

Chapter 10: “Into the Public Eye: 1875-1882.” This looks at Eddy before the debate begins. This includes early letters from Dresser, Ware, Geo Quimby, etc., before the public debate began.

Chapter 11: “1883: The Debate Begins.” This looks at the start of the debate.

Chapter 12: “Christian Science and Mind-Cure in Boston: 1884-1889.” This gives a look at the earliest days of New Thought, Eddy’s growth in Christian Science in Boston and around the country, Warren Felt Evans and Quimby, etc.

Chapter 13: “Eddy’s “Retirement” in Concord, N.H.: The Early Years 1890-1894.” This gives a look at this time period while the Quimby debate simmered down.

Chapter 14: “The Dressers Fight Back: 1895-1899.” This gives a look at the Annetta Dresser book in 1895, Judge Septimus Hanna’s booklet, Christian Science History in 1899, and the article by Horatio Dresser in the Arena.

Chapter 15: “Eddy’s Final Decade and the Earliest Eddy Biographies: 1900-1910.” This gives a look at Milmine, Wilbur, 1904 NYT, etc.

Chapter 16: “The Historians Take Over: 1911-1962.” This includes the Dresser 1921 book, the biographies around 1930, etc.

Chapter 17: “Latter-Day Scholarship: 1963 - Present.” This includes Braden, Peel, Gill, Anderson, etc.

Chapter 18: “Conclusion.”

 

 

Mrs. Eddy in Wilmington, North Carolina— Redux

Mrs. Eddy told interviewer Henry Robinson about 1894 that when she lived in the South she published anti-slavery articles that caused threatening locals to want to find who would write such a thing. She later made similar comments to others. It is routinely stated by historians that such articles never appeared, and it is certainly true that no record of any such articles has been found. What has been completely ignored in this discussion is the critical point that Mrs. Eddy wrote somewhat extensively and exclusively for the Wilmington Messenger, a short-lived newspaper which is not extant today, nor was it extant when the early Christian Scientists ca. 1904 spent so much time researching Mrs. Eddy’s history in Charleston and Wilmington. Thus, no biographer of Mrs. Eddy has ever been able to research that paper for 1844 when Mrs. Eddy was there. (While the history of Mrs. Eddy in Wilmington prepared by Elizabeth Earl Jones—which includes the work of many other early Christian Scientists in the area about 1904 and later—mentions the Messenger a few times, a close reading shows conclusively that the source was simply clippings of her poems that Mrs. Eddy had pasted into her scrapbook. Jones wrote in her historical work, “Mrs. Eddy in North Carolina” (May 1938), a copy of which is now in the New Hanover County Library in Wilmington, North Carolina, p. 48, lamenting the fact that only the Wilmington Chronicle had survived for her and other researchers to examine and the Messenger was no longer extant.)

Historian Alan D. Watson gave a brief history of that newspaper, “Sometime in the early 1840s a paper titled the Messenger appeared to accompany the Chronicle. It was sold in 1844 to David Fulton and Alfred J. Price, who founded the Wilmington Journal, . . .” (See Watson’s book, Wilmington, North Carolina to 1861. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., [ca. 2003], p. 170.)  The Messenger was a “Democratic sheet” as Watson called it (which matched the political leanings of the Glovers and Bakers) while the Chronicle avidly supported the Whigs. About all that we know today of that newspaper comes from a few poems that Mrs. Eddy preserved that were written for or published in the Messenger (as so stated on the clipping), and occasional comments that appeared in the arch-rival, cross-town Chronicle.

Robert Peel—who missed the fact that early researchers did not have access to a file of the Messenger—mistakenly wrote in Discovery, p. 322: “An exhaustive search of the Charleston and Wilmington newspapers has not brought any such [anti-slavery] articles to light. Southern newspapers were definitely not publishing anti-slavery views in those days.” While Peel’s assumption was understandable (and his view that Southern newspapers were not publishing abolitionist articles in those days matched the Bates-Dittemore coverage of the issue), it is an assumption that needs to be examined more closely, for the Peel and Bates-Dittemore comments that Southern papers were not printing anti-slavery views in the antebellum days appears to be too facile of a determination.

Back on December 13, 1843, the Chronicle, for example, printed this statement of alarm regarding a letter from twelve Rhode Island citizens:

“The leader of the small band of Abolitionists in Rhode Island was Thomas W. Dorr, he having been their candidate for Governor and member of Congress, and also a Vice President of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The People refused to elect him by triumphant majorities and would give no countenance to that mover of SEDITION, who now stands charged with TREASON against his native state. He however appears to have excited the special sympathies and admiration of the Editor of the ‘Wilmington Messenger,’ who recently extolled him as an ‘individual espousing the cause of LIBERTY.’. . .”

While the Dorr Revolution was not directly about abolition but rather about Rhode Island enfranchisement laws (which included his personal desire to allow black citizens to vote even if political expediency forced him to drop that plank), Thomas Dorr was a nationally noted anti-slavery advocate. That the editor of the Messenger would extol a noted anti-slavery advocate as a proponent of liberty—even if the editor was only focusing on the populist enfranchisement objective of the Dorr Rebellion—suggests the editor of the Messenger might have been more broadminded and less subject to single-issue bias than has been presumed by later historians.

Even the Chronicle, though in no way anti-slavery, was not against printing the anti-slavery views of John Quincy Adams in its issue of December 20, 1843. Adams at that time opposed a specific motion to propose abolition at the same time that Congress, of which he was a member, was wrestling with the question of what to do with the annexation of Texas and the question of slavery in the District of Columbia. However, as reported by the Chronicle, Adams made his personal views and goals known: “On the subject of Abolition, Abolition societies, Anti-slavery societies, or the Liberty Party:— I have never been a member of either of them. But in opposition to slavery I go as far as any of these; my sentiments, I believe, very nearly accord with theirs. That slavery will be abolished in this country, and throughout the world, I firmly believe. Whether it shall be done peaceably or by blood, God only knows, but that that it shall be accomplished I have not a doubt, but by whatever way, I say let it come.” Adams then said that while he did not want to impose abolition on the District of Columbia for constitutional reason, he fully expected the citizens to vote to abolish it.

While it might be shown that the Messenger was not afraid to take a controversial stand, does that mean that it might have accepted anti-slavery messages from Eddy, as she later alleged? We cannot know for certain. Mrs. Eddy later told of sending in such messages using a nom de plume. The Chronicle on May 1, 1844, published this intriguing slap at its rival regarding one of that rival’s pseudonymous contributors:

“The last communication of Laicus, in the Messenger, convinces us of what we before suspected, that he is an impertinent, mischief-making intermeddler, without the countenance of those for whom he pretends so much zeal. We therefore spurn alike his arguments and his counsel.—We have no other answer for him.”

Mrs. Eddy claimed to have published pseudonymous anti-slavery pieces that turned the local population against her. Could she be the “impertinent, mischief-making intermeddler” that aroused the Chronicle’s ire? Mrs. Eddy claimed that her articles were considered to be from an outsider (a “Yankee”) on behalf of the slaves. It is at least intriguing that Laicus also appears to have been viewed as in intermeddler, which suggests an outsider attempting to meddle in the affairs of the locals. Also Laicus was advocating something on behalf of others “for whom he pretends so much zeal.”

If Mrs. Eddy was not Laicus, was she by chance a different correspondent who wrote under a nom de plume? Without an extant file of the Messenger, we obviously cannot know. But we can say, based on the above, that it is not possible to say that all of the Wilmington papers have been searched, or even to state that the Messenger would have automatically refused such articles if they were offered to it. We do not know what Laicus specifically was writing about—and the phrase “last communication of Laicus” strongly suggests that he|she had more than one communication published in the Messenger. Other than attacking slavery, it might be argued that there were probably few other topics that would have drawn forth such a notice and phrase from the Chronicle other than perhaps a sharp-tongued attack of the Chronicle itself (which seems unlikely given the context) or of the Chronicle’s much-favored Whiggery, which is a possibility but sharp political comments would not likely have earned the term “mischief-making intermeddler.”

The above will appear in my book on the Quimby debate and the histories of Quimby and Mrs. Eddy, including a discussion of Mrs. Eddy's comments about having freed her husband's slaves (when historical evidence suggests that the George Glover, at least at the end, did not own slaves). The above issue about writing anti-slavery articles presupposes that Mrs. Eddy had anti-slavery|abolitionist views in 1844, while she supported political candidates who did not support the abolitionists. All of this I believe needs a fresh look, and I will be discussing that at some length in my book, which I hope to publish in 2012.

 

Edward J. Arens, One of the Founders of New Thought

Edward Arens was a pupil of Mrs. Eddy’s husband, Asa, and he eventually broke with the Eddys and went out on his own, starting by writing pamphlets that plagiarized Mrs. Eddy’s work to the point where she sued him for plagliarism and won. He is considered one of the founders of the New Thought movement, and it was Arens that taught the former P. P. Quimby patients, Julius and Annetta Dresser, when they returned from California to Boston in 1882.

Here is a look at most of the pamphlets and books of Arens:

The Understanding of Christianity, or God, and the Distinction Between Spirit and Matter, . . . by E.J. Arens. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1881. 

This is the suppressed pamphlet mentioned above which was described by Mrs. Eddy in her 1896 article "Inklings Historic" in Mis., pp. 380-381.  In April, 1883, Mrs. Eddy brought suit to prevent Arens from further distributing the pamphlet. About five months later, the court ruled in her favor and required Arens to pay her court costs. As Mrs. Eddy explained it in the above article, p. 381:

"A writ of injunction was issued under the seal of the said Court, restraining the defendant from directly or indirectly printing, publishing, selling, giving away, distributing, or in any way or manner disposing of, the enjoined pamphlet, on a penalty of ten thousand dollars.

The infringing books, to the number of thirty-eight hundred or thereabouts, were put under the edge of the knife, and their unlawful existence destroyed, in Boston, Massachusetts."

Mrs. Eddy made the following comment in her article “Mind-Healing History” in The Christian Science Journal, June, 1887: “[Arens] was fined the costs of court; and about four thousand of his pamphlets were destroyed in Boston, being chopped into pieces by the officers of the law.”

This is the same pamphlet described by Asa Gilbert Eddy in his notice entitled "To the Public" in volume one of the third edition of Science and Health (1881), pp. [vii]-xii.

Shortly after the above suit was filed, Arens came out with two new, revised pamphlets. In my collection are these two pamphlets, bibliographically described as follows:

• Christianity; or, the Understanding of God, and the Distinction Between Spirit and Matter as Applied to the Healing of the Sick. . . . by E.J. Arens. Boston: Caleb Rand, 1883. 

• Theology: or, the Understanding of God, as Applied to the Healing of the Sick, . . . by E.J. Arens. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1883. 

Also in the collection is a photostatic copy of Arens' own copy of his anonymous 1880 pamphlet entitled The Science of the Relation Between God and Man and the Distinction Between Spirit and Matter.

Other than in an unidentified list of rare Christian Science material for sale, which I found in the files of John Howell-Books, I have never seen the above suppressed pamphlet listed in any catalog. Since the pamphlet plagiarizes Mrs. Eddy's writings so closely, I believe it should be considered a variant edition of her writings. (On p. 214 of Clifford Smith's Historical Sketches (1992 edition), he mistakenly indicates that the suppressed edition was one of the 1883 pamphlets above.)

Included with the above pamphlets is a letter from Andrew McCance, the noted early book dealer who specialized in rare Christian Science material, to Allan A. Beauchamp, another dealer specializing in that material. The letter reads as follows:

"Boston, Mass.,  Dec --3, 1908

Mr. A.A. Beauchamp

New York

Dear Sir -- If your customer wants the "Arens pamphlets" he can have them without the one he already owns, but these being Arens own copies I thought they would have some interest on that account.

I bought both the copies of S&H at the last sale  1st edition $70.00  2nd at $55.00 [.] I should tell you however that I would have gone over the Century for the second edition and there was one other dealer had a bid for $100.00 so we decided to compromise[.]

Dont worry about me not asking enough for my Journals [.] I just filled up a set from Vol 12 to date at an average of 50 cts each[;] the prices I quoted you are not the prices I ask, by any means[.]

Very Truly Yours

[s]         Andrew McCance" 

Note: at that time, the Smith & McCance store was located at 38 Bromfield St. in Boston. (The 1875 edition of Science and Health was printed at 50 Bromfield St.) Later, Smith and McCance moved to their Ashburton Place address and then later to the third story of an address on Tremont Street. In the collection is a pamphlet that eulogized McCance after his death in 1939.

Hiram S. Crafts  signature

The one book title in this archive of Arens material is the following:

• Old Theology In its Application to the Healing of the Sick, the Redemption of Man from the Bondage of Sin and Death, and his Restoration to an Everlasting Life, by E. J. Arens. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1884. Vol. I.

On the paste-down endpaper is the pencilled notation: "H.S. Crafts  1885 | March." Hiram S. Crafts was the first student taught by Mrs. Eddy in Christian Science, back in 1867. He thus plays an important role in Christian Science history. Included with the book is a photocopy of a Crafts signature from a letter in the Mary Baker Eddy Library. 

I purchased this copy from the Rare Book Company. Later, when I visited the Rare Book Company they had Volumes I and II, priced at $75 if I recall, but I did not buy them. (The second volume was dated 1886.) Recently I was able to find a  copy of the revised edition of the Volume I described as follows:

• Old Theology In its Application to the Healing of the Sick, the Redemption of Man from the Bondage of Sin and Death, and his Restoration to an Everlasting Life, by E. J. Arens. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1886. Volume I. Revised edition.

After 280 pages of text, the book has several pages of advertisements for books and pamphlets by Arens, including references to the University of the Science of Spirit. It mentioned that a Volume II of the book was in preparation, to be sold by subscription only and entitled Origin of Matter (a copy of which is not in the collection).

The last pamphlet in the collection is the following extraordinarily rare and little-known work:

• Old Theology Healing as Taught in the University of the Science of Spirit, by E. J. Arens. Boston: A.S. Arthur & Co., 1886. (This is a prospectus for his “University.” In it he compares his “Old Theology” teachings to Mrs. Eddy’s in Science and Health.)

Given below are images of some of the titles in the Arens collection of material, starting with a photograph of Arens and then images of the pamphlet that the court ordered “put under the edge of the knife” because it plagiarized Mrs. Eddy:

Audited Financial Statement of The Mother Church 1904-1905

This audited financial statement by Edwin D. Pride is likely one of only five copies prepared for the Christian Science Board of Directors in 1905. It covers the period June 1, 1904 – June 1, 1905 and was the copy of William B. Johnson (based on the handwritten notes of his son, William Lyman Johnson).

The eighteen-page document is filled with a wealth of information on how the Church finances were in this important period, when the Extension was being built. Note: the Christian Science Publishing Society was a separate legal entity so its expenses are not included in this financial statement.

The following are some interesting facts from this document:

 Mrs. Eddy paid the Church $200 for its help with the volume, Book of the Presidents.

William Lyman Johnson was paid $1,600 per year as the assistant to the bell ringer. (Based on a presumed 3.5% inflation factor each year, that would be equal to about $49,000 in 2011 dollars.)

Pew rentals yielded $5,068.75, compared to per capita tax of $28,175.99 and Sunday collections of $11,530.29.

$3,000 was paid to the Church on the notes for the Roslindale property (it was sold on August 30, 1900 to Albert and Mary Childress, and three loans of $1,500 each were made by the Church in that transaction)

The Church paid rent on the 385 Commonwealth Avenue property in the amount of $1,999,92.

The following salary was noted:

—Alfred Farlow, Pub. Com. $5,000 (my understanding is that Farlow had to use this money to pay all of the expenses of his offices, including other salaries).

Insurance was paid in the amount of $601.80.

Per capita tax receipts were as follows in the fiscal years ending in June:

—1903: $22,651.08

—1904: $24,771.97

—1905: $28,175.99

The Church Building Fund received during the year $445,566.83.

Salaries for the members of the Christian Science Board of Directors:

—William B. Johnson $3,300

—Ira O. Knapp $1,000

—Joseph Armstrong $1,000

—Stephen A. Chase $3,200

—Archibald McLellan $1,000

Laura Sargent received a salary for taking care of the Mother’s Room of $800

Hermann Hering, the First Reader received $3,500, and Ella E. Williams, the Second Reader, received $2,400.

The Finance Committee (Calvin Hill, William Lyman Johnson, and Leon Abbott) received collectively $1,500.

Here are images from the financial statement:

 

Another rare first edition

End of the year business duties have limited the amount of time I can devote to this blog, and that might continue for another four to six weeks, but I thought that this brief bibliographical entry might help. In Mrs. Eddy's works in Prose Works, one of the rarest separate publications is the following title. I do not know why it is so rare, but it has proven unusually difficult to find a copy in its first edition. Unfortunately I do not have accessible a photographic image to add:

Rudiments and Rules of Divine Science, by Mary Baker G. Eddy. Boston: Published by the Author, 1887.

The November, 1887, Christian Science Journal included the following announcement:

"RUDIMENTS AND RULES OF DIVINE SCIENCE.

THIS is the title of a new pamphlet by Mrs. Eddy, in which she answers many questions in regard to the Science of Christian Healing. It is nearly ready for publication, and will doubtless be out about as soon as this magazine reaches our readers. The pamphlet contains twenty-seven pages, is printed by William Kellaway, and is neatly stitched in thick paper covers."

Note: for the bibliographical record, here is a description of the copyright edition of the 1887 first edition as examined in the Library of Congress (27 pp. plus four pages of advertisements including an advertisement for Unity of Good, listed as “soon to be published”):

Title-Page:

Rudiments and Rules | —OF— | Divine Science.  | —BY— | MARY BAKER G. EDDY. | PRESIDENT OF MASSACHUSETTS METAPHYSICAL COLLEGE. | [rule] | PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, | 571 COLUMBUS AVENUE, | BOSTON. |  [rule]    1887.

 

The book was copyrighted on November 2, 1887. The inside back wrapper is an advertisement for the Massachusetts Metaphysical College.

The copyright page reads “Copyright, | Mary Baker G. Eddy | 1887” and I see no reference to Kellaway Printers (see above).

On a different note, we have not had a trivia question in some time so I thought this quick question might suffice: When did Mrs. Eddy officially authorize a translation of Science and Health into a foreign language?

Christian Science in Germany

Christian Science has branch churches all over the world but the first country to see Science and Health translated into that country's non-English language was Germany. The history of Christian Science in Germany is more complicated than the account given by Frances Thurber Seal in her seminal history, but that history is the one that has set the template for the subject. The first edition, first issue of that book is quite rare, as is the slightly revised second issue. Here is a bibliographical look at that book:

 

Christian Science in Germany, by Frances Thurber Seal, C.S.B. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., [ca. 1931].

The first issue has “C.S.B.” on the title-page, but Mrs. Seal instructed the publisher to produce a second issue with that designation removed, using a cancel page for the title-page. This book was produced when thirteen friends of Mrs. Seal each contributed $150 to its production.

My collection includes a copy of the second issue, without “C.S.B.” on the title-page and without a reference to the book being published by the author. That copy is inscribed by the author to Abby Longyear Roberts, one of the daughters of Mary Beecher Longyear; the elder Longyear had passed away shortly before this book was published.

Mrs. Seal passed away in 1932, before she could issue additional copies of the book. (For more information, see Longyear Historical Review, Vol. 37, No. 2.) This book was reprinted in 1961 by Mary F. Barber. In my collection is a letter from Mary F. Barber to a Mrs. J. Friedman of Beverly Hills, California, dated March 29, 1961. Her letter read as follows:

“Your letter of the 24th to the Bond Printing & Publishing Service was turned over to me for reply. I had Mrs. Seal’s book reprinted at my own expense, and took over the entire edition, so the Bond people are not distributors, nor are they familiar with the book’s history.

The first edition was published by Mrs. Seal in 1931, printed by John C. Winston Company of Philadelphia. The book was out of print within a year, and became very rare, selling (when a copy came to light) at $50.00 here. The only place where it is to be obtained, and that infrequently, is from the Rare Book Co. of 93 Nassau St., New York. If it was your mind to try to obtain one of the first editions from the original publishers, I can tell you that they do not have any—not even, in fact, a single copy for their own files. I know of this because they were the first printers I was in contact with, when I undertook the second edition. They do not now bring out small editions.”

Separate from Frances Seal, the von Moltke family of Germany was heavily involved in the translating of Science and Health into German. A history of Dorothy von Moltke (who was born in South Africa with a British background and was not a native German speaker) was published many years later, as described below:

 Dorothy von Moltke [:] Ein Leben in Deutschland[,] Briefe aus Kreisau und Berlin 1907-1934, Eingelietet, übersetzt  und herausgegeben von Beate Ruhm von Oppen. München: C.H. Beck, 1999. 

Dorothy von Moltke married Helmuth von Moltke in 1905, and worked with him to translate Science and Health into German about 1911-1912.

The history of Dorothy and Helmuth is also covered briefly in a biography of their son, as given below:

Helmuth James von Moltke [:] Geschichte einer Kindheit und Jugend, von Jochen Kohler. Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag GmbH, 2008. 

This biography includes the time when the von Moltkes lived in Boston about 1911—when Helmuth’s parents were translating Science and Health into German.

Finally, a history of Christian Science in Germany appeared in 2009 in German by a non-Christian Scientist:

Christian Science im Lande Luthers [:] Eine amerikanische Religionsgemeinschaft in Deutschland, 1894-2009, by Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009. 296 pages.

The author said she first came into contact with Christian Science as a guest student at the University of California at Davis in 1988. The book is not only a history of Christian Science in Germany but also in the United States as well.

Wikipedia says this about the author: "Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson is an Associate Professor of American History and Culture at the Amerika-Institut of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, from which she received her Dr. phil. in American History and Culture in 1997."

 

 

 

 

 

A bit more Christmas

The Christmas festivities have reduced the amount of time available to add to this blog, but in response to Craig’s reference to Mrs. Eddy’s specific article on Christmas in 1905, I thought this might be of interest. Beyond that, the same year saw the Pleasant View staff pool their normal Christmas gift money for each other and instead use that money for helping the needy of Concord. That will be mentioned as well in this brief post.

The following holograph letter from Mrs. Eddy, dated November 24, 1905,  to William A. Johnston, amended her manuscript on Christmas that she had written for the New York World. This letter is on Pleasant View stationery with the McNeil coat-of-arms. It is incorrectly addressed to "Mr. Johnson." The letter asks Johnston to add to the manuscript which she had submitted to the World the following lines:

“Hitherto there is but one Jesus Christ on record. Christ is incorporeal. Neither you nor I in the flesh can be or is Christ.”

Mrs. Eddy's article appeared in the World on December 10, 1905. It was entitled “Christmas as in Christian Science.” The main text was dictated to Gilbert C. Carpenter. It now appears in Miscellany, pp. 259-260. Another letter to Johnston (with correct spelling) is recorded with a date of November 28, 1905. It is in the Parke-Bernet catalog of the collection of Gen. Culver C. Sniffen, with an auction date of December 3, 1963. This second letter adds the article "the" to the above lines. An additional letter is dated December 3, 1905, in which Mrs. Eddy mentions counterfeit letters of hers that are given to the public as being authentic. Here is the original letter, along with a copy of the final text as printed later.

As mentioned above, at Christmas time in 1905, rather than have the household members at Pleasant View distracted by having to purchase presents for each other, Gilbert C. Carpenter suggested that they pool their money and use that money to purchase much needed coal for the poor of Concord, N.H. That suggestion was agreed to by all, and my collection includes the invoice for the coal from the March Coal and Grain Co. and many letters of gratitude from the recipients. The following is an example (with the spelling as it originally appeared):

“Dec. 28th 1905

Concord, N.H.

Dear Mama Eddy,–

We received the Coal that you send us Wednesday and we was very much surprise to have it and we all thank you very much for the coal and the shoes that you gave us at the fair.

We all wish you a merry Christmas.

your respectfull

Fred Charette

14 Ferry Street

Concord, N.H.”

It is jokingly said today that to give somone a gift of no meaning is to give them a lump of coal for a present, but here is a real example of the gift of coal as a valuable and well-received present. Mrs. Eddy had earlier given out at the Concord Fair shoes for the needy children of the city and the above letter was written by one who also was the recipient of Mrs. Eddy’s earlier gift to the community.

 

Christmas and Christian Science

As these busy Christmas season days go by, I thought it might be of interest to see some items on Christmas in Christian Science history.

One is this telegram that Mrs. Eddy sent out to Emma McLauthlin, inviting her on December 24, 1895, to her Christmas dinner the next day.

Of course, one book that comes to mind is Christ and Christmas, which was  issued in December, 1893. Here are images of the front cover and title-page of this rare first edition below:

Christ and Christmas, A Poem, by Reverend Mary Baker Eddy [author] and James F. Gilman [illustrator]. Boston: Edward N. Pearson, Printer, 1893. 11 illustrations. 

Another production by Mrs. Eddy for Christmas was this pamphlet:

What Christmas Means to Me, by Mary Baker Eddy. Chicago: The Book & Art Exchange, [ca. 1908].  

(This pamphlet in its first issue is extraordinarily rare. This is a separate printing of this article, which first appeared in the Ladies’ Home Journal of December, 1907. This was reprinted in the Christian Science Sentinel of December 7, 1907. Later it was included in Miscellany, pp. 261-263.

The first issue has the address of the publisher listed as 6 Madison Street, whereas the second issue has the address listed as 81 E. Madison Street. Note: minor typographical differences exist between the two issues. The Mary Baker Eddy Library has a “sixth edition” of this pamphlet, from 81 E. Madison Street, with an aquamarine color rather than the earlier green color.)

Here are images of the front cover and title-page of the rare first issue:

Although the word “Christmas” did not appear on this 1888 Christmas address title by Mrs. Eddy, it was nonetheless a Christmas message from her and is called a "Christmas Sermon" in her Miscellaneous Writings:

Finally, Calvin Augustine Frye and I wish all of you a very Merry (and old-fashioned) Christmas:

 

 

 

 

The centennial of Mrs. Eddy's birth in 1921

The relatively unnoticed centennial of the passing of Mrs. Eddy on December 3, 2010, brought to mind the perhaps controversial manner in which the centennial of her birth was marked on July 16, 1921. The Christian Science Board of Directors chose to downplay the date, maintaining that Mrs. Eddy would have wanted it that way. Perhaps they were correct in that assessment, but that she was not totally against noting her birthday is seen in her letter on her birthday  in 1882 to Clara Choate: “This is my birthday, a day of such moment to the race and of such a history to one?” (In My True Light and Life: Mary Baker Eddy Collections. Boston: The Writings of Mary Baker Eddy (2002), p. 428.)

Here is the statement from the Board of Directors:

 

However there were others who disagreed, and felt that the centennial of her birth should be marked with a special service in her honor at her birth site in Bow, New Hampshire. Back in 1919 a pyramid had been placed at the site, which by that time was owned by Christian Scientist, James Lord. A majority of the Board did not approve of that pyramid venture, starting with Adam Dickey. From the John Dittemore papers is a copy of the Board’s resolution, followed by John Dittemore’s dissenting comments:

[Board Resolution per John Dittemore papers, ca. 1918]

[John Dittemore’s Dissenting opinion]  

In 1918 a history was prepared on how the Bow site came to be purchased by John Lord for preservation. This history was in the Dittemore papers and was presumably written by him or his ally, Allan A. Beauchamp:

Dittemore, Beauchamp, Mrs. Longyear, Lord, Samuel Greenwood, and some other noted Christian Scientists at that time were devotees of the Anglo-Israel theory that maintained the British and American peoples were the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel and thus had special divine blessing. Connected to that theory was the belief that the “Great Pyramid” in Egypt were so designed as to represent prophecies of the future that could be determined by those specially adept at making such interpretations. Thus the use of a pyramid marker for the Bow site, as we see above, was heavily symbolic and not merely artistic.

The pyramid appears to have been added to the Bow homestead site early in 1919, and here are photographs of some noted individuals at the building of the site:

[Left to right, Allan A. Beauchamp, John V. Dittemore (and James Lord?)]

Here is a postcard of the site before the pyramid was added: 

Here is a photograph of the site after the pyramid had been completed:

On July 16, 1921, a commemorative event took place at the site, and here are photographs of that event:

[John Dittemore and his wife, along with Mrs. Longyear (near the wreath), and others.]

[Sarah Baker, the wife of John Baker, who owned the Bow homestead for many years and who was the son of Mrs. Eddy’s cousin, Aaron Whittemore Baker. (It was to Rufus Baker, the son of John and Sarah, that Mrs. Eddy wrote the letter that included the title of this blog.)]

 [Reporters were there to take note of the event.]

There was even a committee set up to commemorate the centennial, with its own stationery:

Eventually, in 1927, James Lord gifted the homestead land to The Mother Church, as noted in the Christian Science Sentinel: