"Affection craves legend and relics."

A surprisingly rare first edition

Christian Scientists are generally aware of the titles of Mrs. Eddy's articles in her collected Prose Works, but very often they are not that knowledgeable about the history of the articles and pamphlets collected there. Thus the relative rarity of a particular first separate printing is not known or appreciated. In the case of what is now called The People’s Idea of God, it has proven to be one of the rarest of Mrs. Eddy’s major works. There is no clear reason for that other than perhaps a shortage of funds in 1883 to promote it adequately. Here is a bibliographical description of the rare first edition:

The People's God. Its Effect on Health and Christianity, by Mrs. M. B. G. Eddy. Cambridge, MA: John Wilson and Son (University Press), 1883. 

As stated above, this is  one of the rarest of the first editions of Mrs. Eddy's major writings, even more so than the published first edition of Christian Science: No and Yes. A catalog for the Rare Book Company in 1931 advertised a copy of this first edition as "[o]ne of the few copies in existence." Ralph Geradi of the Rare Book Company told me in the 1980s that in over sixty years of specializing in Christian Science material, he had not seen more than ten copies of the first edition. I have a  copy that was advertised in the John Howell-Books catalog, but I purchased the copy from Jack Birss for $500, which Geradi thought was a good price. Amazingly, A. H. Greenly had three copies of the first edition, according to the catalog cards that he prepared for his collection. Greenly bought all three copies from Andrew McCance (the noted Boston book dealer and specialist in Christian Science material), in 1932 ($25), 1934 ($50), and 1939 ($50). Also in my collection is a copy of the 1886 second edition.

Note: for the bibliographical record, here is a description of the copyright edition of the 1883 first edition in the Library of Congress ([3]-13 pp.), which appears to be identical to the trade edition above:

Title-Page:

THE | PEOPLE’S GOD. | ITS EFFECT ON  | HEALTH AND CHRISTIANITY. | BY | MRS. M. B. G. EDDY, | PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST. | [rule] | CAMBRIDGE: | JOHN WILSON AND SON. | University Press. | 1883

The pamphlet was copyrighted on August 10, 1883. The inside back wrapper is an advertisement for the Massachusetts Metaphysical College.

The pamphlet was later titled, The People’s Idea of God, and at the Mary Baker Eddy Library [A11372] is a document where at some point in a 1900 copy of People's Ideas of God, Mrs. Eddy changed the title to The True Idea of God, although this change was never made officially.

For those of you who are not bibliophiles, I will try to be sure to offer posts on other issues than just those that appeal to book collectors!   

Louisa May Alcott and "mind cure"

 

In the mid-1870s Mrs. Eddy befriended one of the leading and aging figures in the transcendentalism world, Bronson Alcott, who in turn provided a level of support to her when she very much needed it. However today he is perhaps better known as the father of Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women and other books. By 1885 Louisa Alcott's opinions had become a matter of interest, so when she wrote to the Woman's Journal on April 18, 1885, on her experience with "mind cure," that was an observation that mattered in certain circles. It certainly mattered to Mrs. Eddy and her followers, who did not see themselves as "mind curers" but nonetheless knew that they would be lumped in with them in the public's eye. Here is what Alcott wrote, followed by the extremely rare published response from Calvin Frye and Arthur T. Buswell, representing different arms of Mrs. Eddy's church in Boston.

  Frye and Buswell reacted quickly to this "imposition" (to use a later word) by issuing this response:

   

Poems by Mary Baker Eddy in various volumes of poetry

Mrs. Eddy's poems were collected over the years in various anthologies, starting in 1850 and going up to 1910, and here are I hope some of the more interesting ones:

Gems For You; From New Hampshire Authors. F.A. Moore, editor. Manchester, N.H.: William H. Fisk, 1850.

This is the first known book publication of any of the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, known in this book as Mrs. Mary M. Glover. In this book is the first printing known of her poem, "The Valley Cemetery" (pp. 176-177). Also in this book is her poem "Old Man of the Mountain" (pp. 112-13), which was first printed in The Floral Wreath, and Ladies' Monthly Magazine (Charleston, South Carolina) in July, 1844.

This book came out in many variant issues under different titles and with different decorative illustrations during the 1850's, but the same plates were used for each issue. In this collection are the following:

—Gems For You; A Gift for All Seasons. F.A. Moore, compiler. Manchester, N.H.: William H. Fisk, 1851.

—The Book of Gems; A Gift for All Seasons. Eugene Sinclair, compiler. Manchester, N.H.: William H. Fisk, 1854

—The Book of Gems; A Gift for All Seasons. Eugene Sinclair, compiler. Boston: Published by J. Buffum, 1856.

—A Gift for You, of Prose and Poetic Gems. Eugene Sinclair, compiler. Boston: G.W. Cottrell, 1859. [1857 and 1858 issues are known, in addition to undated issues,  also a possibly later printing with fancy green binding.] Also in this collection is an unrecorded, undated version of this book with a special original binding with Select Poems on the cover and spine. 

—Friendship's Offering, A Gift for All Seasons. Eugene Sinclair, compiler. Manchester, N.H.: Fisk & Stearns, 1858.

Also in this collection are the title-page, index, and the two poems by Mrs. Eddy which were removed from an 1857 issue of A Gift for You, of Prose and Poetic Gems. 

Note: also in my collection is an 1850 edition with an inscription to Mary Gove, evidently in Mrs. Eddy's handwriting. This was evidently Gilbert Carpenter's copy at one point, since it has his handwriting on it. The name of the person who presented the copy is not given, and the word “present” is unusually ornate, but Jack Birss was convinced  it was by Mrs. Eddy, and I believe he was correct.

A private collection includes a copy of the first edition, with a handwritten date of January 1, 1850, suggesting that the book was obtained on that date.

The Poets of New Hampshire, . . . Bela Chapin, compiler. Claremont, N.H.: Charles H. Adams, 1883.

On pp. 755-756 appears Mrs. Eddy's poem, "Old Man of the Mountain,"  which first appeared in print in 1844. This is one of Mrs. Eddy's most reprinted poems. Her name as author is given as Mary Morse Glover Eddy. The biographical information about her is given as follows:

“Mrs. Eddy was born in Sanbornton, July 16, 1821. Of late she has resided in Boston, and she has preached regularly on Sundays at the Hawthorne Rooms. She is author of an able metaphysical treatise, entitled, "Science and Health." She married firstly, G. W. Glover; secondly, D. Patterson; and thirdly, G. Eddy. She has one son, Geo W. Glover.”

Spanish-American War Songs: A Complete Collection of Newspaper Verse During the Recent War with Spain, compiled and edited by Sidney A. Witherbee. Detroit, MI: Sidney A. Witherbee, 1898.

Extremely rare and little-known. This otherwise unrecorded large book, with 984 pages, includes the first printing in a book of Mrs. Eddy’s poem, “The United States to Great Britain,” p. 348.

This poem first appeared in the Boston Herald, May 15, 1898. In this collection is the first reprint, which appeared in The Christian Science Journal, June, 1898. The poem by Mrs. Eddy was in response to a poem “On the Eve,” that appeared in the English newspaper, The Daily Chronicle and Clerkenwell News, April 22, 1898. (This information is based on a letter from Geoffrey Fingland to John Parrott in 1967, a copy of which is in the collection after it was provided by The Mother Church archives to Jack Birss in 1977. That poem had been incorrectly titled “Greeting from England” from “The London Chronicle.”)

My collection also includes the reprint of this poem that appeared in the Washington Newsletter, June 25, 1898. This poem later appeared in Poems (pp. 10-11) and My., p. 337.

My collection does not include a copy of what is believed to be the first separate printing of this poem, which is a card produced about June or July 1898 by Herbert L. Dunbar and sold by him. Jack Birss sold a copy of this Dunbar edition prior to my purchasing his collection, but the collection includes a photocopy of the edition.

The Concordia: Lines Written by Natives and Residents of Concord, New Hampshire. Alma Jane Herbert, compiler. Concord, N.H.: Rumford Printing Company, 1907.

Little-known collection of poems written by Concord residents. Mrs. Eddy's contribution, "Old Man of the Mountain," appeared on p. 79. 

 

 

Some more trivia between posts

I don't want to belabor the trivia, but between now and another post, here are some more questions:

1.    Which hymn was sung by the Knapp family that comforted Mrs. Eddy while she stayed with them in New Hampshire, as she came downstairs?

2.    For what is Emilie Hergenroeder best remembered?

3.    When was the “Free Dispensary of Christian Science Healing” begun?

4.    When did Mrs. Eddy hold a christening for children and how many were christened?

5.    Which major US city in 1903 refused to grant a charter to a Christian Science branch church because the city did not believe Christian Science was a valid church?

6.    Roughly what year did Mrs. Eddy tell a student that she thought she could promote Christian Science more easily in England than in America?

7.    Where today can we see the carte de visite photograph of P. P. Quimby that he gave to Mrs. Eddy?

8.    What did Mrs. Eddy ask to have engraved at the foot of the entrance to “Mother’s Room” and on the archway above it?

9.    How many copies of Joseph Armstrong’s book, The Mother Church, did Mrs. Eddy buy?

10.  Of whom did Judge Septimus Hanna write when he said this person made a special study of the Book of Revelation, and this person’s interpretation was beyond him? 

The Pursuit of More Trivia

Here are some more questions:

1.    While Martin Luther was the only person to have a chapter header in Science and Health other than from those in the Bible, elsewhere in Science and Health two other non-Bible writers have similar quotes outside of the text of the book. Who are they?

2.    Where does Mrs. Eddy write about the “mendacity of error”?

3.    Where did Mrs. Eddy write she found herself a willing disciple?

4.    According to Science and Health, when did Mrs. Eddy date her scriptural writings that are today commonly referred to as her Genesis manuscript?

5.    Which book by R. K. Noyes is quoted by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health?

6.    In which common book in the Christian Science Reading Room is found Mrs. Eddy’s published letter dated May 15, 1903? Note it is not in Prose Works or the biographies of her.

7.    Staying with Reading Room books, which other book offered there has a full-page photograph of Annie Knott, the first female member of the Board of Directors?

8.    In which edition of Science and Health were only fifty copies produced with special Oxford Bible paper? (See below of an inscription by Mrs. Eddy to Clara Shannon for this edition.)

9.    For what period of time did the morning service in The Mother Church have a different text than the evening service?

10.  Even though Mrs. Eddy was too busy to have visitors at the time, to which visitor did she make a special trip to see at his|her hotel in Concord (presumably the Eagle Hotel)?  (See below a photograph of inside the Eagle Hotel along with a photograph made from an early postcard of the outside of the hotel.)

 

   

An Historic Pamphlet

An Historic Spot [:] The Birthplace of Christian Science, by Mary Beecher Longyear. Boston: Press of Geo. H. Ellis, 1921.

The above booklet (ultra rare and little-known) is significant for many reasons, one of which is that it provides the first printing in its entirety (with some minor transcription errors) of Mrs. Eddy’s [then Mary M. Patterson] letter to Julius Dresser on February 15, 1866. The booklet focuses on Mrs. Eddy’s home in Swampscott, Massachusetts, where she was healed of the effects of what is known as the “fall on the ice” in 1866, from which healing she credited the discovery of Christian Science.

In order to avoid problems with the Christian Science Board of Directors in the 1920s (during the era of the “Great Litigation” and the later disaffection of John V. Dittemore, who was known to be her friend), Mrs. Longyear was extremely cautious when it came to letting anyone outside of her immediate circle see certain of her publications. See her letter to William Lyman Johnson, December 20, 1923, in my collection:

“Please do not talk about me and my work to any one. I was shocked when you told Judge [Clifford] Smith about my owning the letter of Mrs. Eddy’s with out consulting me first. I gave you a book about the Swampscott house [i.e., this booklet] but no one else. I only let those who go there [i.e., to the Swampscott house] read it and leave it there. Of course the directors want to know of my activities and I beg you to keep a discreet silence in regard to me and my work.”

Mrs. Longyear was a long-time friend of John V. Dittemore, as stated above, and he mentioned this booklet on p. 106 of his biography of Mrs. Eddy in 1932. That is the only recorded reference to this booklet in any history of Mrs. Eddy or Christian Science.

In my collection is a note only (not the original) of an inscription by Mrs. Longyear to Samuel P. Bancroft on a copy of this pamphlet, as follows:

“To Mr S P Bancroft

Who can speak to the

world, with authority

of his teacher and friend

Mary Baker Eddy 

From one who

loves and honors the

same inspired teacher

of the world

Mary Beecher Longyear

February 26th 1922” 

In this day and age of searching on the Internet, it is significant that a Google search for the combined words “Longyear” and “An Historic Spot” only turns up two references to this pamphlet: (1) an earlier reference in this blog, and (2) a catalog of the holdings of the Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston.

— — — — — —

For those interested, here is my bibliographic listing of other books produced by Mrs. Longyear and/or her Zion Research Foundation through 1926:

[1901]

First issue of her first book:

THE UNFOLDING LIFE | PASSAGES FROM THE DIARIES, NOTE- | BOOKS AND LETTERS OF HOWARD MUNRO LONGYEAR, AND FROM THE | LETTERS HE RECEIVED FROM HIS | PARENTS AND FRIENDS. ARRANGED | AND EDITED BY HENRY D. NUNN | [Ornament in red design of the Greek letters psi zeta psi surrounded by a red shield and branches with leaves] | PRIVATELY PRINTED AT THE MERRY- | MOUNT PRESS, BOSTON, A.D. MDCCCCI

Second issue of her first book:

THE UNFOLDING LIFE | PASSAGES FROM THE DIARIES, NOTE- | BOOKS AND LETTERS OF HOWARD MUNRO LONGYEAR, AND FROM THE | LETTERS HE RECEIVED FROM HIS | PARENTS AND FRIENDS. ARRANGED | AND EDITED BY HENRY D. NUNN | [Ornament of a woodcut forest scene with the ititials “m.j.n.” (Mary J. Newill)] | PRIVATELY PRINTED BY D.B. UPDIKE | THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON, IN | THE YEAR OF OUR LORD MDCCCCI

(In November 1902 twenty copies of the book (presumably the second issue) were produced in Japan paper with additional illustrations. I have not seen this issue.)

[1910]

First issue of her second book, using a pseudonym:

THE LAW OF A HOUSEHOLD | BY | EUNICE BEECHER | [ornament] | BOSTON | PRIVATELY PRINTED | 1910

Second issue of her second book (ca. 1912):

THE | LAW OF A HOUSEHOLD | BY | EUNICE BEECHER | [Floral ornament with the message “SCIRE ^. QVOD | SCIENDVM” in the middle] | BOSTON | SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY | PUBLISHERS

[1916]

Far Countries was copyrighted in 1916:

FAR COUNTRIES| AS SEEN BY | A BOY | By M. BEECHER LONGYEAR | ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS | AND WITH PEN AND INK SKETCHES | [Sailing ship ornament] | PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY | PUBLISHER ^. SAN FRANCISCO

This book for children has the following introductory message:

“TO ALL GOOD AMERICAN BOYS —

AND GIRLS TOO. 

Wouldn’t you like to join our

trip around the world by reading this book?

It will prove a short cut to history of some nations, and

give you an idea of how things over there

look, today, to a boy.”

[1921]

GATHERED VERSES | OF | MANY YEARS | BY | MARY BEECHER LONGYEAR | BOSTON | Press of GEO. H. ELLIS CO. | (Incorporated) | 1921

AN | HISTORIC SPOT | The Birthplace of | Christian Science | BY | MARY BEECHER LONGYEAR | [Ornament] | BOSTON | Press of GEO. H. ELLIS CO. | (Incorporated) | 1921

[1922]

HEAR, O ISRAEL! | Woman and the Spiritual Seed of Israel | Abraham, the Father of Judah and Israel | United Israel, comprised of the House of Judah and | the House of Israel | Three Prophetic Voices | BY | MARY BEECHER LONGYEAR | BOSTON | Press of GEO H. ELLIS CO. | (Incorporated) | 1922

The Genealogy and Life| OF | ASA GILBERT EDDY | HUSBAND OF | MARY BAKER GLOVER | Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science | COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS AND PERSONAL | LETTERS BY | MARY BEECHER LONGYEAR | BOSTON | PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS CO. | (INCORPORATED) | 1922

[1923]

MRS. EDDY | AS I KNEW HER IN 1870 | IN TWO PARTS | MRS. EDDY’S LETTERS | MRS. EDDY’S MANUSCRIPTS | BY | SAMUEL PUTNAM BANCROFT | BOSTON | PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS CO. | (INCORPORATED) | 1923

[1924]

CATALOGUE | OF THE | Zion Research Library [This is from the front cover. The catalogue does not have a title-page. This catalog is dated 1924]

 [1925]

THE | HISTORY OF A HOUSE | (Built by Squire Bagley, in Amesbury, Massachusetts) | Its Founder, Family and Guests | BY | MARY BEECHER LONGYEAR | Illustrated by photographs of the house and the original furniture | and objects found in the house in 1922 | BROOKLINE, MASS. | THE ZION RESEARCH FOUNDATION | 1925

THE LIGHT OF THE AGES | A Study of the Advance | of Spiritual Ideas, in the Course of which | Christian Science has appeared  | BY | MYRTLE STRODE JACKSON |  PUBLISHED BY |  THE ZION RESEARCH FOUNDATION | BOSTON, MASS. | 1925

[1926]

The History of | The Christian Science Movement | BY | CONTEMPORANEOUS AUTHORS |  Written for and Edited at the Request of |  mary beecher longyear | [Zion Research Foundation insignia] | PUBLISHED BY | THE ZION RESEARCH FOUNDATION | BROOKLINE, MASS. | 1926 [Two volumes.]

Here is additional information on this important historical work:

AUTHOR:                   William Lyman Johnson

PUBLICATION

INFORMATION:      Brookline, MA: Zion Research Foundation, 1926. Two volumes. Wove paper with watermark “WARREN’S OLDE STYLE.” Volume 1: [iii] – xx, 1 – 444; Volume 2: [iii] – [xi], 1 – 514. Illustrated.

HALF-TITLE:         [Volume 1:] THE HISTORY OF | THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MOVEMENT | Volume The First | BY | WM. LYMAN JOHNSON

[Volume 2:] THE HISTORY OF | THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MOVEMENT | Volume The Second | BY | WM. LYMAN JOHNSON

COPYRIGHT PAGE:   Copyright, 1926 | by |  THE ZION RESEARCH FOUNDATION | BROOKLINE,                                      MASS. | PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS (INC.) BOSTON