"Affection craves legend and relics."

A Check-list of writings by Mary Baker Eddy 1821-1875

On October 30, 1875, Mary Baker Eddy (then Glover) published her first book on Christian Science, entitled Science and Health. In later years Mrs. Eddy would write numerous other books, pamphlets, and articles, but her career as a published author began long before her work as the founder of Christian Science. This check-list is to record all known published writings by Mrs. Eddy up to and including Science and Health in 1875.

In writing about her early writing career many years later, Mrs. Eddy wrote in her manuscript entitled “Footprints Fadeless,” “If all my poems from early years which have appeared in public print were collected, they would fill a good-sized volume.” This check-list verifies that statement.

Note: some anonymous articles in the 1830s have been attributed to Mrs. Eddy but due to the speculative nature of those attributions, they are not included here.

1. “When I was a Wee Little Slip of a Girl,” Hill's New Hampshire Patriot,December 23, 1840. This appeared anonymously and is attributed to Mrs. Eddy by Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr., in Early Verse ([West Barrington,R.I.]: Privately Printed, [1933], unpaginated) and Marian King in Mary Baker Eddy: Child of Promise (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968), p. 55. Carpenter wrote in Early Verse that a “manuscript which verifies this authorship is in the archives of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston.” This apparently refers to the inclusion of this title by Mrs. Eddy in one of her two notebooks along with titles of other poems all apparently written by her.

2. “The Summer is Past the Harvest is Ended,” by “M.” Belknap Gazette, October 18, 1842. The title is derived from Jeremiah 8:20.

3. “A Winter's Sunset,” by “M.” Belknap Gazette and Carroll County Advertiser, February 21, 1843. (The newspaper changed its title to this longer version starting with the January 17, 1843 issue.)

4. “Farewell,” by “M.” Belknap Gazette and Carroll County Advertiser, May 2, 1843.

5. “On seeing a Bird flying Southward,” by “M.” Belknap Gazette and Carroll County Advertiser, May 23, 1843.   This poem was reprinted many years later as follows: “To a Bird Flying Southward,” by “Mary A. [sic] Patterson.” The Independent Democrat, July 3, 1862. Bates-Dittemore in Mary Baker Eddy, p. 76, give an incorrect publication date. The published date in Mary Baker Eddy of June 26, 1862, is a typographical error. The original manuscript of the Bates-Dittemore biography reads June 20, 1862, which is the date the poem was written rather than published.

6. “Stanzas Written When About Leaving New England, at the Grave of Albert Baker, Esq.” by “M.” Belknap Gazette and Carroll County Advertiser, December 19, 1843. Carpenter in Early Verse mistakenly attributes this to the New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette. Judge Clifford P. Smith did as well at the 1938 Annual Meeting of The Mother Church, as reported in the July, 1938 Christian Science Journal. This has been cited in its manuscript form under a slightly different title. See Robert Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery, p. 321. Note: the text of this poem was copied by George Baker, Mrs. Eddy's brother, in his journal. He recorded Mary Baker as the author. That journal is owned by the Longyear Museum and was displayed by them in 1992.

7. “Winter,” by “Mary.” Belknap Gazette and Carroll County Advertiser, December 26, 1843. A holograph version of this poem appears in  Mrs. Eddy's notebook.

8. “Acrostic,” by “Mrs. G.W. Glover.” Wilmington Messenger, date unknown. Reprinted in the Belknap Gazette and Carroll County Advertiser, April 30, 1844. 

9. “Parody.” Wilmington Messenger, April 1844. This poem appeared anonymously, but Elizabeth Earl Jones in her 1949 manuscript on Mrs. Eddy’s stay in the South showed it as being by “Mrs. G. W. Glover” and she provided the date of April 11, 1844, but she was likely wrong (see below). Mrs. Eddy kept a clipping of this poem in her scrapbook.

Ernest S. Bates and John V. Dittemore in Mary Baker Eddy: The  Truth and the Tradition (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1932), p. 34, mistakenly give a publication date of April 3, 1844. King in Mary Baker Eddy, p. 77, incorrectly gives a publication date of April 11, 1844. The clipping of the poem that has been preserved clearly indicates that the poem was written in Wilmington on April 11, 1844. A publication date of about April 15, 1844, seems likely.  The text given by Carpenter in Early Verse adds "By Mrs. G.W. Glover" under the title (the Mary Baker Eddy library has a large collection of letters from Jones to Gilbert Carpenter, Jr., so that is likely the source for Carpenter’s attribution). No such sign of authorship appears on the original.

Henry Clay visited Wilmington, North Carolina, about April 10, 1844, and his visit to the city where Mrs. Eddy lived likely brought forth this poem.

10. “A Sabbath Morning at the Sound,” by “Mrs. G.W. Glover.”  A fragment of this article is preserved in Mrs. Eddy's scrapbook.  The title and the name of authorship suggest a newspaper or periodical of the South, perhaps the Wilmington Messenger.  The date is likely the spring of 1844.

11. “Lines Written on Reading an Address on the Moral Power of Charity, Delivered by Rev. Albert Chase before St. John's Lodge and Concord Chapter at Wilmington, N.C. on the 27th December Last,” by “Mrs. G.W. Glover.” Wilmington Messenger, date unknown. The address by Rev. Chase was printed at length in The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, April 1, 1844.  This is likely where Mrs. Eddy read it. A publication date of sometime in April, 1844, seems likely.

12. “A Fragment,” by “Mrs. G.W. Glover.” The Floral Wreath, and Ladies' Monthly Magazine, May, 1844. This periodical also went by the popular title of Heriot's Magazine when reviewed by the local press, but the former title is correct. See William Stanley Hoole, A Check-list and Finding-list of Charleston Periodicals 1732-1864 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1936), pp. 48-49. May, 1844, saw the first issue of this magazine.

13. “My Mother,” by “Mrs. G.W. Glover.”  The Floral Wreath, and Ladies' Monthly Magazine, June, 1844. This appeared in manuscript form under the title, “To My Mother, After a Long Separation.” See Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery, p. 76. (Note: Peel was not able to date this poem in his biography because a file of the periodical had not yet been discovered.)

14. “The Old Man of the Mountain,” by “Mrs. G.W. Glover.” The Floral Wreath, and Ladies' Monthly Magazine, July, 1844.  This consists of a two-paragraph foreword and the poem of the above title.  Both the foreword and the poem were reprinted in the Odd Fellows publication, The Covenant (Baltimore, MD), July, 1846.  The poem alone was reprinted in a gift book that went through numerous changes in publisher and title, but always with the same plates used for the text so that the pagination is always the same. The list of titles is as follows:

•Gems for You; From New Hampshire Authors, F.A. Moore, compiler (Manchester, N.H.: William H. Fisk, 1850), pp. 112-13.

•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, 1857). This edition was also issued in 1858 and1859. In addition, this edition was  issued about this time  without publication dates. One copy that has been located has a gift  inscription date of December 25, 1860, but it is not known whether  the book was new at that time. Another copy, with a special green binding that appeared to be of a later vintage, had an inscription date of 1870, but again, that may not have been written when the book was first published.

•The Book of Gems; A Gift for All Seasons, Eugene Sinclair, compiler (Manchester, N.H.: [W.H.] Fisk, 1858). This issue is recorded in the National Union Catalog and may have an incorrect  form of publisher's name.

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

(The above research confirms and expands upon the work of Ralph Thompson in American Literary Annuals & Gift Books 1825-1865 ([N.p.]: Archon Books, 1967), p. 125, and Frederick Faxon, Literary Annuals and Gift-Books. Boston: The Boston Book Company, 1912, pp. 28 and 31. A brief history of the above variant issues also appears in the BAL, Vol. 2, p. 463.)

15. “The Widow's Prayer,” by “Mrs. G.W. Glover.” The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine (Boston, MA),  May 1, 1845. (Note: this poem was misdated by Robert Peel in Discovery, p. 324, as January 1845.) A slightly revised manuscript version was reprinted by John V. Dittemore in The Ladies’ Home Journal, June, 1911. For reasons not given, the poem was dated about the year 1858.

16. [Excerpt from a Letter.] The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, May 1, 1845. Albert Case in his obituary of Mrs. Eddy's husband, George Glover, printed an excerpt of a letter that Mrs. Eddy had sent to him in 1844: “. . . never, never, shall I forget while reason lasts, the kindness of the Brethren at Wilmington . . . they will be cherished in my heart's heart.”

17. “Death of Jackson,”  by “Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire  Patriot and State Gazette, July 17, 1845.  “Jackson” was former president Andrew Jackson, who died on June 8, 1845, at his Hermitage estate in Nashville, Tennessee.

18. “Sonnet,” by “M.M.G.”  New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, November 13, 1845. This poem is  “Respectfully dedicated to Mrs. R____N.” A revision of this poem, with the title “Sonnet, to Rev. Albert Case,” appeared in the Boston publication, The Odd Fellow, September 3, 1846.  Mrs. Eddy revised the poem again, presumably in 1863, when she wrote a “Sonnet[,] Suggested by Reading the Remarkable Cure of Capt. J.W. Deering .” This manuscript poem was dedicated to “Doctor P.P. Quimby,” and the original manuscript is in the Phineas P. Quimby papers in the Library of Congress. Along with  the manuscript is a note to the editor of the Portland, Maine, newspaper, The Evening Courier, asking for a speedy insertion. It is possible that the poem and note were sent by Mrs. Eddy to Quimby for his review and were never subsequently submitted for    publication.  This would explain the fact that the original documents are still in the Quimby papers. No file of the Evening Courier is known. See Horatio W. Dresser (ed.), The Quimby Manuscripts (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, [1921]), pp. vii-viii of the appendix. The transcript of the poem on page 160 of the 1921 edition of The Quimby Manuscripts is inaccurate.

19. “Thoughts at a Grave,” by “Mrs. M. M. Glover.” The Covenant, December, 1845. The Covenant was an Odd Fellows periodical published in Baltimore.

20. “Benefits of Odd-Fellowship, No. 1.” by “M. M. G.” The Covenant, February, 1846. In the same issue, the editor wrote: “We are indebted to Mrs. Mary M. Glover, of N.H., for an interesting article, (No. 1,) on the Benefits of Odd-Fellowship. We insert with great pleasure and are well persuaded that our readers will look with interest for future numbers from the same pen. Odd-Fellowship is worthy the approval of the wise and good, and when thus commended by woman,—we, its votaries, may well feel encouraged to labor in its behalf. She, not only declares its utility to the world, and shows wherein its excellency consists, but she pleads for its progress,—its success, and its future triumphs at the throne of the Eternal.”

21. “In Spirit Am I With Thee, Friends,” by “M. M. G.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, March 5, 1846.

22. “Benefits of Odd-Fellowship.” by “M. M. G.” The Covenant, April, 1846.

[Note: also in this issue of The Covenant is an excerpt that is simply attributed as follows: “The following pathetic expressions were selected for the Covenant, by one of the choicest of earth, who is proverbial for kindness and sympathy, and who having passed through the afflictive scenes described, has realized the truthfulness of the sentiments expressed.” The three paragraph selection includes the following: “Who that has watched beside the sick—the dying couch of a beloved being—does not remember the dreary, desolate blank that succeeds the moment of dissolution? While life remains, hope will linger.” Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr., attributes this to Mrs. Glover in his privately printed Items Culled From the Press, [1948], pp. 13-14, but that attribution, while probable, is not certain. (Stephen Gottschalk in Rolling Away the Stone: Mary Baker Eddy’s Challenge to Materialism [Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, [2005], pp. 63 and 433, also makes the case for this having been written by Mrs. Eddy.)  It is worth noting that in her article “Odd-Fellowship” in November, 1846, Mrs. Glover wrote similarly: “Behold with woman’s nature, the ministering angel o’er the death couch, watch the scene till it darkens, when hope and love that so lately nestled warm in the bosom, is shrouded in the tomb!”]

23. “The Emigrant's Farewell,” by “Mrs. Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant, May, 1846.

24. “Emma Clinton, or a Tale of the Frontiers,” by “Mrs. Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant, August, 1846. Back in the April, 1846, issue, the editor had written of this upcoming piece of writing: “We have the promise of a ‘Tale of the Frontiers’—by our fair correspondent in New Hampshire, for an early number of the Covenant. We shall take pleasure in laying it before our readers, confident that it will be perused with interest. Mrs. M. M. Glover, has become extensively and favorably known as a writer, to the readers of our Periodicals, and the ‘Tale of the Frontiers,’ will be looked for patiently, yet with hope.”

25. “Odd-Fellows' Harp,” by “Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant,  September, 1846.

26. “The Bible,” by “Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant, October, 1846.

27. “The Moon,” by “Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant, October, 1846.

28. “Odd-Fellowship,” by “Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant, November, 1846.

Note: another Odd Fellows publication, The Golden Rule and Odd-Fellows’ Family Companion (November 14, 1846), wrote of this issue of the Covenant: “It contains a good variety of instructive and amusing articles, which no doubt will strengthen its hold upon the affections of its numerous readers.”

29. “Immortality of the Soul,” by “Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant, May, 1847. A nice announcement of the upcoming article appeared in the previous month’s Covenant. The announcement said that the article was written “in the pure and chaste style so characteristic of her writing.”

30. “The Test of Love,” by “Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant, June, 1847.

31. “Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant, June, 1847. This poem appeared anonymously, but internal and external evidence make it clear that this poem was written by  Mrs. Eddy, rather than just being about her. It is possible that the poem was submitted untitled and the editor simply added her name as the title.

32. [Excerpt from a Letter.] The Covenant, June, 1847. The  editor of The Covenant  printed a brief excerpt from  a letter that Mrs. Eddy had written to him on March 10, 1847: “I am hopefully recovering after  six months suffering.”

33. “Prayer,” by “Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant, July, 1847.

34. [Excerpt from a Letter.] The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, August, 1847. The letter, dated June 7, 1847, is from a “Mason's Widow” in Sanbornton Bridge, New Hampshire—the town where Mrs. Eddy then lived. In the letter she declines an invitation to a Masonic Festival because no one can take her and she does not want to go alone.

35. “Sonnet to Harry,” by “G.M.M.”  The Covenant, September, 1847.  "G.M.M." was a reversal of Mrs. Eddy's initials at the time, her name then being Mary Morse Glover. The poem in revised form, under the title “Upward,” appeared in The Christian Science Journal in July, 1903. Later, it appeared in Mrs. Eddy's collected Poems, pp. 18-19. Another version of the poem was added by Mrs. Eddy to her article “Fallibility of Human Concepts” in her Miscellaneous Writings (p. 354 in the final edition) sometime after the original printing of the book in 1897.

36. “Erin, the Smile and the Tear in Thine Eyes,” by “Mary M. Glover.” The Covenant, September, 1847.

37. “The Grave of Ringgold,” by  “Annapolis Bard.” The Covenant, November, 1847. Reprinted in the New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, February 10, 1848, under the same title but with the initials  “M. M. G.”

38. “The Wife,” by “Mrs. Mary M. Glover.” The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, January 1, 1848. It is recorded that Mrs. Glover sent a holograph copy of this poem to her friend, Priscilla Clement.

39. “Lines on the Death of Colonel Ransom,” by “Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, January 20, 1848.

40. “Lines, Suggested on Reading an Account of the Masonic Meeting of Generals Quitman and Shields, U.S.A., at a Festival of the Fraternity in Charleston, S.C.” by “Mary M. Glover.” The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, March 1, 1848. Reprinted in the New Hampshire Patriot and  State Gazette, March 30, 1848.

41. “Odd Fellowship,” by “Mary M. Glover.” Two separate printings of this poem are known and preserved as clippings in Mrs. Eddy's scrapbooks. One is evidently in the Connecticut Odd Fellow and the other in the “Symbol.”  King in Mary Baker Eddy, p. 79, gives a publication date of June 6, 1844, for the version in Connecticut Odd Fellow. This is not accurate. (The September 25, 1847, issue of The Golden Rule and Odd-Fellows’ Family Companion announced that the first issue of the Connecticut Odd Fellow was published in Hartford, Connecticut, also on September 25, 1847.)

From a holograph version of the poem in Mrs. Eddy's notebook, it is known that she wrote the poem while in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1844. One clipping in her scrapbook has at the top: “For the Conn. Odd Fellow.” The other clipping has at the top: “For the Symbol.” Copies of The Symbol, and Odd Fellow's Magazine for December, 1843 - June, 1846, have been located and examined without success in finding this poem. A possible successor publication, Weekly Symbol and Odd Fellows' Gazette, is listed in the Union List of Serials for the time period May 20, 1846 - April 7, 1849. Unfortunately, no complete file of this periodical has been found. In addition, no complete file of the Connecticut Odd Fellow has been located. (The Connecticut Historical Society has various issues of the Connecticut Odd Fellow dating from  June 3 – December 23, 1848, but the above poem does not appear in those issues.)

The Longyear Museum has put on display a letter from one Townsend P. Abell in Middletown, Connecticut, to Mrs. Eddy, dated April 3, 1848. He is known to be have been the “D.D. Grand Master” of the Middleton Lodge in 1846. In the letter, Abell told Mrs. Eddy that a mutual friend had showed to him one of her “poetical articles.” He took the liberty of sending it along to the Connecticut Odd Fellow, and he sent along to Mrs. Eddy a copy of the magazine. After giving his regrets that the item was not copied properly, he told Mrs. Eddy that he was trying to sustain his fraternal publication and wanted to know if she would consider becoming a correspondent. This letter clearly suggests that Mrs. Eddy's first contribution did not occur until at least early 1848. For the only reference to Townsend Abell in a biography of Mrs. Eddy, see Richard Nenneman, Persistent Pilgrim: The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (1997), p. 47.

(While no copies of the Connecticut Odd Fellow with Mrs. Eddy's contribution are extant, a published report of a meeting on January 12, 1848, of the Grand Lodge of the Connecticut Odd Fellows told of a resolution put forth (and passed) by Abell “that we view with satisfaction the establishment of a weekly periodical devoted to the interests of Odd Fellowship in this State; and therefore recommend, with great cheerfulness and sincerity, the ‘Connecticut Odd Fellow’ to the encouragement and patronage of the brotherhood in this commonwealth.”)

Both versions of the poem are signed “Mary M. Glover,” a form of her name she did not use until 1845 and later—a time after her stay in the South. Available evidence suggests publication dates for the two poems of the latter half of the 1840's, especially about the year 1848.

42. “Our Country,” by “Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, March 16, 1848. Reprinted in the same newspaper on April 6, 1848.

43. “Voices of Spring,” by “Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, April 27, 1848. Reprinted as “Spring” in the Lynn Weekly Reporter [Lynn,  Massachusetts], June 3, 1865. The poem was rewritten under the title, “June.”

44. “The Mother at the Loss of Her Drowned Son, Whose Body was not Recovered,” by “Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, June 1, 1848.

45. “American Heroes' Festival,” by “Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, July 6, 1848.

46. “Oh! For Thy Wings Sweet Bird,” by “Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, August 30, 1849.

47. “To My Mother in Heaven,” by “Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, December 20, 1849. Reprinted in The Juvenile Sunday-Book; Containing Sketches in Prose and Verse, Adapted to the Moral Improvement of the Young, published separately in New York by the firms of J. S. Redfield and Kiggins & Kellogg. Both pamphlets are undated but are believed to have been published sometime between the death of  Mrs. Eddy's mother on November 21, 1849, and the end of 1854. (A later issue of the Kiggins and Kellogg version appeared in 1856 or later. Between the two publishers, at least eight issues of the pamphlet are known.) Both pamphlets use the same plates, and, thus, the poem appears on pages 14-15 in both issues. A bound copy of the Kiggins and Kellogg Fourth Series is recorded, which includes this pamphlet.

The poem in revised form appeared with the title “The Last but One---To Sister Hannah” in the Portland Daily Press [Portland, Maine], February 19, 1864, and again in the Maine State Press, February 25, 1864.

48. “The Valley Cemetery,” by “Mrs. Mary M. Glover.” Gems For You; From New Hampshire Authors,  F. A. Moore, compiler (Manchester, N.H.: William H. Fisk, 1850), pp. 176-177. See the listing above for “The Old Man of the Mountain” for a complete history of the variant issues of this book.

49. “To General Cass,” by “Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, February 7, 1850.

50. [Obituary.] New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, March 14, 1850. This obituary of John H. Bartlett was signed "COM." This was commonly found at the end of obituaries in this newspaper and others and is believed to mean “communicated,” so that the text was written by someone other than the newspaper staff. This is attributed to Mrs. Eddy by Bates-Dittemore in Mary Baker Eddy, p. 49, perhaps based on the fact that a clipping of this obituary was preserved by Mrs. Eddy in her scrapbook with her name written beside it, suggesting that she wished her authorship recorded.

John Bartlett was engaged to be married to Mrs. Eddy prior to his leaving for the California Gold Rush in 1849, according to a notation made by Mrs. Eddy in her scrapbook. He died in “Sacramento City” on December, 11, 1849, just a few weeks after the death of Mrs. Eddy's mother.

51. “The Flag of Our Union,” by “Mrs. Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, July 28, 1852.This is just one of two printings of this poem. The other is from an unidentified source, and it is the version preserved in Mrs. Eddy’s scrapbook. 

52. “Sonnet, TO GEN. FRANKLIN PIERCE,” by “Mary M. Glover.” New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, October 20, 1852.

53. “Lake Winnipiseogee,” by “Mary M. Glover.” Godey's Lady's Book, February, 1853. This is Mrs. Eddy's only recorded poem in this popular magazine. Bates-Dittemore and others have incorrectly attributed to Mrs. Eddy a poem entitled “The Mourner” which appeared in that magazine in 1843, because the poem was signed "M. M. B." [i.e.,  Mary Morse Baker]. Later the poem was determined to be by a different author, an M. M. Bartlett. See Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery, p. 321.

54. “Woman's Rights—What Are They?” by “Mary W. [sic] Glover.” Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, February 19, 1853. (Note: in the issue of February 12, 1853, the magazine listed the poems that would appear the following week, and the correct name was given then.) This would prove to be one of Mrs. Eddy's most reprinted poems. Given below is a list of later publications through 1875:

•Portland Daily Advertiser, by “Mary M. Patterson,”  November 13,  1862.

•[Source unknown], a clipping in Mrs. Eddy's scrapbook, only partially preserved, by “M. M. P.”

Note: Robert Peel in the second volume of his biographical trilogy of Mrs. Eddy, p. 317, incorrectly states that a version of this poem appeared in the New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette.

The original manuscript submitted to Gleason's in 1853 has been preserved and was sold at the auction of Harris Auction Galleries, Inc., on February 6, 1981. An original manuscript of this poem, dated October, 1874, sold in 1908 at auction for $43.00. A facsimile of this latter manuscript was later produced by Frederick Remington as an aid in the selling of his rare Christian Science material in the 1930's.

55. Published affidavit by “Mary M. Patterson,” dated April 3, 1860, regarding the case of the Wheets, father and son, who attacked her husband and threatened harm before she through herself in the midst of them. This affidavit was found in a clipping in the Georgine Milmine material in the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity. That clipping has not been dated or its original source found. The original news article on this affair was from the Nashua Gazette and Hillsborough County Advertiser of March 15, 1860, a copy of which was in Mrs. Eddy’s scrapbook. A volunteer at the New Hampshire Historical Society was unable to find this latter article in the Nashua Gazette or the New Hampshire Patriot.

56. “Major Anderson and Our Country,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” The Independent Democrat [Concord, New Hampshire],  February 14, 1861.

57. “What I do not Know, and What I do Know,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Portland Evening Courier [Portland, Maine], November 7 [?], 1862. The date of November 7, 1862, has customarily been used since the Georgine Milmine biographical serial of Mrs. Eddy in McClure's magazine in 1907. However, the only known copies extant are an undated clipping in the Phineas P. Quimby papers in the Library of Congress and a clipping in one of Mrs. Eddy’s scrapbooks. Julius Dresser, in The True History of Mental Science (Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, Printers, 1887), p. 22, incorrectly gives a publication date of June, 1862. Part of this letter was reprinted in the Portland Daily Advertiser, November 8, 1862, in an effort to deride its author. No file of the Portland Evening Courier has been located.

58. [Untitled.] A reply by “Mary M. Patterson” in the Portland Evening Courier to the derisive article on November 8, 1862, in the Portland Daily Advertiser. This undated clipping is in the Quimby papers. A publication date of about November 9 or 10, 1862, seems likely.

59. “Reminiscences of Portland,” by “M. M. Patterson.” Portland Daily Press, October 21, 1863. The reminiscences are from a journal kept by her in July, 1863.

60. “Opportunity and Courage,” by “M. M. Patterson.” Portland Daily Press, October 27, 1863.

61. “To S.J.F.” by “M. M. Patterson.” Portland Daily Press, November 16, 1863. “S.J.F.” was a frequent contributor of poems to the Portland newspapers of the day.

62. “Lines for the Rolls in New Hampshire,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” The Independent Democrat, November 19, 1863. Republished under the title, “Written on Reading the Call of the Governor of New Hampshire for Soldiers,” in the Portland Daily Press, December 12, 1863, and in the Maine State Press, December 17, 1863.

63. “Way-side Thoughts,” by “M. M. Patterson.” Portland Daily Press, November 21, 1863. This is a letter to the Press, the first of three with the same heading.

64. “Christmas Day,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Portland Daily Press, December 31, 1863.

65. “Way-side Thoughts,” by “M. M. Patterson.” Portland Daily Press, January 7, 1864.

66. “Winter,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Portland Daily Press, January 23, 1864. This poems differs textually from the earlier poem with the same title.

67. “Way-side Thoughts,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Portland Daily Press, January 29, 1864. This appeared in a much revised form as “Falsehood” by “M. M. P.” in the Lynn Bulletin [Lynn, Massachusetts], November 8, 1865. It was reprinted again, in a version much closer to the original, as “Slander” in the Journal of Christian Science, August 14, 1883. Portions of that article appeared in The Christian Science Journal, April, 1885, and June, 1886. Finally, the  article, retitled “Perfidy and Slander,” was included in Miscellaneous Writings (1897), pp. 226-228.

68. “The Women of Tennessee,” by “Mrs. M. M. Patterson.” Portland Daily Press, March 8, 1864.

69. “The High Rock Concert,” by “M. M. P.” Lynn Weekly Reporter [Lynn, Massachusetts], July 9, 1864. Note: a holograph version of a poem evidently concerning this concert in Mrs. Eddy's handwriting was offered for sale in a 1931 catalog of the rare book dealer Paul Elder. It was titled in the catalog “Home on High Rock.”

70. “Day After Thanksgiving,” by “M. M. P********.” Lynn Bay State [Lynn, Massachusetts], December 1, 1864. Reprinted in revised form in the Journal of Christian Science, December 1, 1883, and included in Miscellaneous Writings (1897), pp. 230-232. Bates-Dittemore in Mary Baker Eddy, p. 102, incorrectly give a publication date for this article of November 25, 1864.

Note: the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, is the only known location for any issues of the Lynn Bay State. Unfortunately, only a few issues of that paper for 1864 and 1865 are extant. Other contributions by Mrs. Patterson may now be lost to historians.

71. “Alone,” by “Mary M. P____.” Lynn Bay State, December 22, 1864. A longer, revised manuscript version, dated August 13, 1867, was published by John V. Dittemore in the Ladies' Home Journal, June, 1911.

72. “The Liberty Bells,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Lynn Reporter, February 11, 1865.

73. “LINES on Visiting Pine Grove Cemetery,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Lynn Weekly Reporter, September 9, 1865.

74. “Our National Thanksgiving Hymn,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Lynn Weekly Reporter, December 30, 1865.

75. “To the Old Year, 1865,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Lynn Weekly Reporter, January 13, 1866.

76. “Essex County Good Templars Union at Marblehead,” by “M. W. [sic] Patterson.” Lynn Weekly Reporter, February 3, 1866.

77. “LINES on the Decease of Dr. P. P. Quimby, Who Healed with the Truth that Christ Taught, in Contradistinction to All Isms,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Lynn Reporter, February 14, 1866. Julius Dresser owned a clipping of this poem which Mrs. Eddy had mailed to him. In The True History of Mental Science in 1887 he began a mistake which was to be duplicated by all later chroniclers for nearly a century: the word “decease” was replaced by the word “death” in the title. However, a manuscript version of this poem, given by Mrs. Eddy to Sarah Crosby and printed in McClure's  magazine in February, 1907, used the word “death” in the title.

78. Printed invitation as follows:

 “Lynn, March 19, 1866

The next regular meeting of Sagamore Social Temple of Honor, No. 6, will be held at Odd Fellows’ Hall, on Monday, March 26^th inst., at 7 1-2 o’clock, P.M., when the vote will be taken on a motion of surrender the Charter.

You are requested to be present,

M.M. Patterson, Sec’y.”

On the back of this document, Eddy wrote a holograph version of her above poem to Quimby.

79. “Swampscott,” by “Mrs. M. M. Patterson.” Lynn Reporter, April 4, 1866.

80. [Untitled hymn.] Lynn Reporter, August 4, 1866. In an anonymous article entitled “Dedication of a Temperance Hall,” a six-stanza hymn written by Mrs. Eddy for the occasion was printed.

81. “To Ellen.--'Sing Me That Song,’ ” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Lynn Reporter, August 25, 1866. Note: the Longyear Museum has put on display a holograph poem, undated, entitled “O Sing Me That Song”  by “Mary M. B. Patterson.” That poem was dedicated to her sister-in-law, Martha Rand Baker.

82. “I'm Sitting Alone,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Lynn Reporter, September 12, 1866.

83. “To My Absent Brother,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Lynn Reporter, November 24, 1866.

84. “To Etta,” by “M. M. Patterson.” Lynn Reporter, December 8, 1866.

85. “Invocation for 1868,” by “Mary Baker Glover.” Lynn Reporter, January 4, 1868.

86. “Poetry,” by “Mary M. Patterson." Lynn Reporter, February 15, 1868. This would become one of Mrs. Eddy's most beloved hymns. This was later printed in 1868 as follows:

•“Christ my Refuge,” by “Mary M. B. Glover.” Amesbury and Salisbury Mills [Massachusetts] Villager, August 20, 1868. This version is reprinted imperfectly in Mary Beecher Longyear, The History of a House (Brookline, MA: Zion Research  Foundation, 1925), pp. 67-68. (Robert Peel in Discovery, p. 350, dates a clipping of this at August 2, 1868. That is the date the poem was written, as given at the foot of the text. The poem was printed on the above date of August 20, 1868.)

87. “Lines,” by “Mary M. Patterson.” Lynn Reporter, March 14, 1868.

88. “The Angel of the Hour,” by “Mary M. Glover.” Amesbury and Salisbury Mills Villager, April 23, 1868. Carpenter in Early Verse records a version with slightly different wording signed by “Mary M. Patterson,” but no source or date are given.

89. [Advertisement] by “Mary B. Glover.” Banner of Light, June 20, 1868. Repeated in this Boston periodical on June 27 and July 4, 1868. (Most biographers record only the July 4 printing.) The advertisement is to learn from Mrs. Glover how to heal the sick.

90. [Advertisement] by “Mary M. B. Glover.” Banner of Light, December 4, 1869. Repeated December 11, 1869. This is an invitation to have Mrs. Glover teach the reader “a SCIENCE by which all diseases are healed.”

91. [Advertisement] Lynn Semi-Weekly Reporter, August 13, 1870. Repeated August 17, 1870. This is an unsigned invitation to learn to heal the sick from Mrs. Glover at Dr. Kennedy's. Because Richard Kennedy is mentioned, his authorship is possible. However, Mrs. Glover's authorship seems very likely.

92. “A Card,” by “Mrs. Glover.” Lynn Semi-Weekly Reporter, December 31, 1870. This is a thank you from Mrs. Glover to her students for their presents on Christmas Eve.

93. “A Card,” by “Mrs. M. M. Glover.” Lynn Semi-Weekly Reporter, February 1, 1871. In this notice, Mrs. Glover gives her thanks to Rev. Cook for taking his moral stand and gives her famous statement: “Purity is the baptism of scientific Christianity.”

94. “Truth,” by “Mrs. M. M. B. Glover.” Lynn Transcript, May 6, 1871.

95. “Nevermore,” by “Mary M. Baker Glover.” Lynn Transcript, September 23, 1871.

96. “Lines, on Receiving Some Grapes,” by “Mary Baker Glover.” Lynn Transcript, November 4, 1871.

97. [Letter to the Editor] by “Mary M. B. Glover.” Lynn Transcript, January 20, 1872.This lengthy letter responds to the letter of Wallace Wright in the Transcript one week earlier which attacked her teachings. On January 27 in the Transcript, Wright wrote a second letter, entitled “Moral Science alias Mesmerism.--No. 2,” in which he repeated some of Mrs. Glover's letter in the January 20 Transcript.

98. “To the Public. Moral Science and Mesmerism,” by “Mrs. Mary M. B. Glover.” Lynn Transcript, February 3, 1872. The newspaper exchange between Mrs. Glover and Wallace Wright impelled her to give here the first published statement of Christian Science, then called Moral Science. In addition, Mrs. Glover announces her intention to publish a book on the subject. Excerpts from this letter were reprinted the following week by Wallace Wright in another one of his attacks (see below).

99. “Moral Science alias Mesmerism.--No. 3.” [by “W. W. Wright”]. Lynn Transcript, February 10, 1872. Wright, in another attack on Mrs. Glover's teachings, here quotes excerpts from her manuscripts used by her when she taught her classes in Christian Science.

100. “Dissolution of Copartnership,” by “Mary M. B. Glover.” Lynn Semi-Weekly Reporter, May 4, 1872. This formally announces the termination of business relations between Mrs. Glover and Richard Kennedy. Repeated the same month in the Reporter on the 8th, 11th, 15th, and 18th.

101. “Card,” by “Mary M. B. Glover.” Lynn Semi-Weekly Reporter, January 8, 1873. Mrs. Glover here gives thanks for gifts given to her by her students.

102. “Take Notice!” by “Mrs. M. B. Glover.” Lynn Semi-Weekly Reporter, June 19, 1875. Repeated the same year in the Reporter for June 26, 30, and July 3, and 7. In addition, the same advertisement ran in the Lynn Transcript for June 19, 26, and July 3, 1875. This is an invitation to hear Mrs. Glover lecture.

103. Science and Health by “Mary Baker Glover.” Boston: Christian Scientist Publishing Company, 1875. 3-456. (Printed by W.F. Brown & Co., 50 Bromfield St., Boston.)

This is “the precious volume,” as Mrs. Eddy referred to it in her autobiography, Retrospection and Introspection. It was issued in an edition of 1,000 copies with various color bindings on October 30, 1875.

 

 

 

 

Christian Science Music

 
As the Christian Science movement (including churches run by students of Mary Baker Eddy) progressed into the late 1880s, the desire to have Christian Science music came to the fore, as members wished to duplicate to some extent the church experience they had grown up with, and I have made a special effort to collect the various efforts to incorporate music into Christian Science. The first effort by Mrs. Eddy in this regard appears to be this recopyrighting by her of her poem, but with the word "Hymn" attached to the title:

Hymn: “Christ My Refuge,” by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy. [Boston: Published by the Author, 1887.]

This is of absolute rarity as it is one of only two copies printed to secure copyright. This was received by the Library of Congress on August 3, 1887. This copy was later deaccessioned by the Library of Congress. I consider this to be the first separate publication of a Christian Science hymn. (Note: in 1876 Mrs. Glover published a poem she then called “Hymn of Science,” but that was not meant as a musical hymn. A photograph of that item is in my collection. In the March 1887 Christian Science Journal she published “Hymn – Feed My Sheep.” A copy of that Journal is also in my collection.)

This absolute rarity was evidently soon followed by the rare published music below:

— Christ, My Refuge. [Boston: N.p., ca. 1887]. The music was written by Irving Harwood, and the hymn was first sung publicly at Chickering Hall on October 30, 1887, with Mrs. Eddy in attendance. 

Another folio-sized single published hymn with music is the following:

— Feed My Sheep, by Rev. Mary B.G. Eddy [words] and Lyman Brackett [music]. [Boston: N.p., n.d. (ca. 1889).] This is extremely rare music sheet for one of Mrs. Eddy's most beloved poems. The hymn first appeared in print in The Christian Science Journal of March, 1887, a copy of which is also in my collection, and it was listed as a hymn. The words were copyrighted on December 21, 1887. The first record of this music sheet is an advertisement for it in the Journal of November, 1889. The following month it was announced that the music sheet came with a "fine photo" of Mrs. Eddy on the front. (This copy has the photo.) In the Journal of February, 1890, a notice appeared that the sale of this music sheet would aid the Church Building Fund. In this collection are all of the following three issues: [1^st] no photograph of Mrs. Eddy appears and in the middle there is no text where a photograph was available to go [2^nd] where the photograph should go on the cover is the text “A Sacred Song” [3^rd] a fine photograph of Mrs. Eddy is pasted in the middle of the front cover.

Also in my collection is a later printing (about 1913 or later) of the 1898 edition of sheet music of Feed My Sheep, with music by Lyman Brackett.

Here is a copy of the first hymnal used by Christian Scientists, before they had their own:

— Hymn and Tune Book, for the Church and the Home. Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1870 (copyrighted in 1868, printed by John Wilson and Son).

The following items listed are all in my collection.

As mentioned above, by the end of the 1880’s, Christian Scientists were attempting to add music to poems that they felt were in keeping with Christian Science, even those individuals who were disaffected from Mrs. Eddy but still used the name of Christian Science. An example is the following hymnal:

— A Collection of Familiar and Original Hymns and Tunes Rendered Scientifically, for Christian Science Service. Chicago: Published by Ursula N. Gestefeld, 1889. This has an introduction by Hannah More Kohaus, a later New Thought and Unity writer.

Another example from the same year was also published in Chicago, by those loyal to Mrs. Eddy at that time:

—  Hymnal; for Christian Science Church and Sunday School Services. — Compiled and Arranged by Jessie Day. Chicago: Mrs. O.W. Day, 1889. (Mrs. Day was a pupil of Mrs. Eddy’s, and Jessie was her daughter.) This hymnal was never used at the Church in Boston. Hymn 105 is Mrs. Eddy’s hymn “Shepherd” under the title of the music “St. Nicholas.” My collection includes a copy that is inscribed by O.W. Day on October 11, 1889. This hymnal also includes  hymn 136 by Josephine Woodbury (with hymn 91 by “J.C.W.”). Hymn 200 is by Frank E. Mason, C.S.B. (and hymn 174 is by F.E. Mason). Finally, hymn 86 is by “M.M. C.S.B.”

Other similar attempts are as follows:

— Christian Science Hymns. Brooklyn: F.E. Mason, C.S.D., [1890]. This is [4] pages and has 14 hymns but no music.

— Christian Science Hymns as Used in Services Conducted by Joseph Adams. Chicago: Shea Smith & Co., [ca. 1890]. This has 16 pages and 42 hymns, also with no music.

— Fifty Christian Science Hymns, for Public and Social Worship, [edited by Joseph Adams]. Chicago: Daniels, Pitkin & Hall, Printers, [ca. 1890]. Second edition. This has 16 pages and 50 hymns, also with no music. 

In the October, 1890, Christian Science Journal appeared the following notice:

“The Publication Committee at a meeting held Sept 20th [1890] empowered the Committee on Church Hymnal to compile twenty hymns more or less for immediate use among Scientists pending the completion of a Christian Science hymnal.”

Here is the resulting production:

—  Christian Science Hymns. Boston: Christian Science Publishing Society, [1890]. This leaflet on boards with [4] pages and 17 hymns without music is extremely rare and little-known.

Finally the hymnal in Boston was complete, and the notice was made in the November 1892 Christian Science Journal: “The Hymnal of 225 [sic] pages, bound in cloth or leather, now ready for delivery.” The hymnal was as follows:

— Christian Science Hymnal [:] A Selection of Spiritual Songs. Boston: Christian Science Publishing Society, 1892. This copy in my collection was Minnie Weygandt’s copy, having gotten it from Caroline Mann. Other issues of the hymnal in this collection are:

— 1894 231 pp.

— 1895 231 pp.

— 1896 (with a page for the Doxology pasted onto page  211) 231 pp.

— 1899 236 pp.

— 1901 236 pp.

— 1903 238 pp.

— 1904 (William B. Johnson’s own copy, specially bound for him, all edges gilt, with his name gilt stamped on the cover) pp. 238 pp. 

— 1905 240 pp. (does not include hymns written by William Lyman Johnson)

— 1906 240 pp.

—1907 (smaller size in leather) 240 pp. (One of the two copies in my collection was given to Judge Septimus J. Hanna by the 1907 Normal Class.)

— 1908 245 pp. plus four unpaginated index pages.

In 1909 the hymnal was redone, with over 300 pages. That was the standard hymnal in Christian Science churches until the hymnal was again revamped, in 1932. Of course, the supplement to the 1932 edition was added in 2008.

My collection also includes a hymnal, ca. 1926, which includes the hymnal concordance.

The 1903 edition above is especially interesting since it includes stubs for pasting on new versions of hymns to replace old hymns. For example, in this copy are extremely rare 1905 separate printings of William Lyman Johnson music for Mrs. Eddy’s hymns “Shepherd, Show Me How To Go” (hymn 161) and “O’er Waiting Harpstrings Of The Mind” (hymn 179). The 1903 edition is also significant since it is the first hymnal to include Mrs. Eddy’s hymn “Blest Christmas Morn.”

Also included is the extraordinarily rare separate printing of a signature of three versions of Mrs. Eddy’s hymn “Shepherd, Show Me How To Go” (hymns 195-197) and “O’er Waiting Harpstrings Of The Mind” (hymns 198-200), with a revised index, all of which was to be tipped into the back of the 1906 hymnal. For example, in the 1906 hymnal the only version of “O’er Waiting Harpstrings” was the recent 1905 version with music by William Lyman Johnson. This brought the number up to four versions.

In my collection are the following rare single published hymns with music by William Lyman Johnson:

—   The Mother’s Evening Prayer. [Words by Mary Baker G. Eddy and music by William Lyman Johnson.] Boston: Printed by Lounsbery, Nichols & Worth Co., (ca. 1899). This music was copyrighted in 1899 and the printers were also used the same year for Septimus Hanna’s Christian Science History and the 1899 Hymnal.

—   Christ My Refuge. [Words by Mary Baker G. Eddy and music by William Lyman Johnson.] Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, (ca. 1905). This music was copyrighted by Mrs. Eddy in 1905. In the Christian Science Sentinel of September 30, 1905, and August 26, 1905, are notices of new music for "Christ My Refuge" which was available separately. This is believed to be that edition.

My collection also includes later variant printings of Mrs. Eddy’s hymns. One of them is the 1909 collection of Mrs. Eddy’s hymns with music by Frederick Root:

— Devotional Songs Written by Rev. Mary Baker Eddy [,] Composed by Frederick Root. Chicago: Clayton F. Summy. [ca. 1909]. This issue was Mrs. Eddy’s poem, “Love.”

In 1894, Robert C. Hannon made an effort to add hymns in his textbook described as follows:

—  Science of Life and Power of our Mind. Scranton, PA: Published by the Author, 1894. The hymn section (without music) is found on pp. [174]-205.

—RECITALS—

The above focuses on words set or designed to be set to music to express Christian Science. In addition, this collection also includes programs from the following two musical recitals:

Mrs. Jessie Griswold, assisted by Mrs. Mamie E. Hitch, Soprano, and Mr. Lyman Brackett, Pianist. The “Reading” was “in Aid of Church of Christ, (Scientist).” The date was March 1, 1888.

Shortly after The Mother Church was dedicated in the beginning of 1895, the Church had a recital to show off the new organ. This was advertised in the program in the collection for a performance by:

 “Mr. R. Huntington Woodman

assisted by

Miss Elsie Lincoln

at the

First Church of Christ, Scientist

Falmouth and Norway Streets

Boston, Mass.

Thursday Evening, March 21, ‘95”

 

Note: in the collection is also a mind cure musical production as an honor to Prof. Jean B. Hazzard. The music sheet, with music composed for the pianoforte by Nellie Fay Fairchild. The music was entitled, Prof. Hazzard’s Grand March ‘Through the Fields of Christian Science.’ Philadelphia: F.A. North & Co., [ca. 1887]. This copy is inscribed “Compliments of the Composer.” The collection also has a copy of the following similarly titled production:

Christian Scientist Grand March[:] Dedicated to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy[:] (The most noted woman in the world.), by Isaac Dales. Chicago: Lyon & Healy, [ca. 1911]. This music sheet was copyrighted in 1911 and included Mrs. Eddy’s text, “Keep  your mind so filled. . . .”

In later years books for Christian Science services were published for organ music, etc. For example in this collection is the following book:

—   Thirty Organ Pieces for use in Christian Science Churches, edited by Walter E. Young, organist of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston. Philadelphia: Oliver Ditson Company, 1914. The large book has 155 pages.

 

Christian Science and rare book catalogs

Christian Science collectors have existed to some extent since Mrs. Eddy’s days. I thought it would be interesting to provide a review of catalogs that relate to Mrs. Eddy and Christian Science as far back as 1908:

Rare and Fine Books Including a Portion of the Library of Chas. Belden Van Nostrand. New York: The Anderson Auction Company, 1908.

This is a very scarce book catalog, and it is possibly the first catalog that printed excerpts from unpublished letters of Mrs. Eddy. This catalog includes a significant collection of Christian Science material, pp. 20-24, including excerpts from four unpublished letters of Mary Baker Eddy, all written in 1880. This catalog also gives excerpts on various notes written by Mrs. Eddy which were also for sale.

Also in my collection is the book, American Book-Prices Current, Luther S. Livingston, compiler. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1908). This book on p. 627 briefly details the sale of the above letters but does not publish excerpts.

Catalogue of the Private Library of the Late Dr. I. T. Talbot of Boston. . . . Boston: C. F. Libbie & Co., 1911.

Extremely rare and very important catalog for an auction planned for February 23 and 24, 1911, just a few months after Mrs. Eddy's passing. This catalog, pp. 38-40, includes some rare Christian Science items, but most importantly it prints excerpts from eight letters which Mrs. Eddy had written to her distant cousin Hattie Baker in 1876.

Shortly after the announcement was made, the law firm of Elder and Whitman, on behalf of Henry M. Baker, the executor of Mrs. Eddy's estate, sought in court to prevent the publication (or further publication) of the letters. Included with the catalog is a 1911 newspaper clipping which discusses the case. On p. [1] of the catalog, written at the top, is the following note: "Lots 455 to 463 Inclusive withdrawn pending decision of Supreme Court." Also included is another clipping which announces the planned sale of the letters and prints excerpts.

Little is known by me about this important legal case. Richard Oakes in his pamphlet Discerning the Rights of Man (1971), p. 23, wrote the following account evidently based on information supplied to him by Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr.:

"Shortly after Mrs. Eddy's decease, Messrs. C. F. Libbie & Co., Auctioneers of 597 Washington St., Boston, produced a catalog offering a number of Mrs. Eddy's autograph letters at an auction sale to be held on February 23rd and 24th, 1911. Quotations from these letters were included in the catalogue and the Board of Directors obtained an injunction for the withdrawal of the catalogue and later won their suit against Messrs. Libbie & Co. in which they claimed sole right as Mrs. Eddy's heirs to the publications for sale of any of Mrs. Eddy's writings, letters, etc."

Despite the above, much remains unclear. The above account by Oakes says that the catalog was withdrawn, and yet the above copy says simply that the Mary Baker Eddy items were withdrawn from the auction, whereas handwritten prices are given for all of the rest of the items in the catalog. Later, when excerpts from other letters of Mrs. Eddy were advertised in catalogs (such as the 1915 Heise sale), no apparent effort was made to stop the publication. However, about 1921 the Board of Directors was successful in preventing Horatio Dresser from reprinting Mrs. Eddy's letters to P. P. Quimby in the second edition of his book, The Quimby Manuscripts.

Note: an excerpt of the Baker v. Libbie court decision appears in the Christian Science Sentinel of December 11, 1937.

Autographs of Famous Americans [:] Comprising the Collection of John Heise, Esq., of Syracuse, New York. New York: The American Art Association, 1915.

Item number 144 is a transcribed copy of a letter from Mrs. Eddy to "My precious little artist." Based on collateral information in the Allan Beauchamp material, the addressee is Susan Schenk, and the date is April 13, 1896. The letter reads as follows (based on the above transcript and a review of a copy of the original letter from 1920):

“April 13 [1896]

My precious little artist

 I have not had the time till now to thank you for the accommodation [,] which I do most heartily. Your tree was a great improvement in the painting. I will have the[?] $30 [?] frame.

In haste

with love Mother

MB Eddy”

Earlier Schenk had painted a picture of the chair that Mrs. Eddy wrote Science and Health in. Here she was evidently working on a picture for her poem, “Feed My Sheep,” which Mrs. Eddy has asked her to work on.

Item number 145 is a letter from Mrs. Eddy to "My dear Student,"  dated April 17, 1888, regarding Josephine Woodbury's articles in the Christian Science Journal.

Also included in my collection is a copy of the following 1920 catalog from Anderson Galleries: Association Books from the Library of John Greenleaf Whittier. New York: The Anderson Galleries, 1920. [3]-[49]. The auction was set for February 24 and 25, 1920, and of course most of the items related to the library of John Greenleaf Whittier. However, opposite p. 22 is a facsimile of the above 1896 letter to Susan Schenk.

The collection also includes a large number of other catalogs (original and photocopied) that include material by Mrs. Eddy. The following is a partial list of such catalogs (excluding catalogs from the Rare Book Company, Paul Elder in San Francisco, Dawson’s Bookshop, the Frank J. Wilder auction of Annie V. C. Leavitt material in 1930, and the John Howell-Books catalog of 1980—all of which are covered separately):

Original Catalogs

 

—  First Editions of XIXth Century Authors (which includes among other things the Bret Harte collection sold by Mrs. Bret Harte). New York: American Art Association, 1927. Excerpted page from an American Art Association auction catalog, Sale Number not stated, for dates March 16 and 17, 1927. Item #190  is a copy of the privately printed edition of Mrs. Eddy’s poems, in vellum, in 1910. This copy was number 35.

—    First Editions. . . . New York: American Art Association, Inc., 1927. (This is for a sale from many sources, including the libraries of William F. Poole and Russell A. Bowen, May 5 and 6, 1927.) This includes an excellent collection of early editions of Science and Health. It also includes a few other Christian Science books as well.

—     Choice Autographs from Goodspeed’s. Boston: Goodspeed’s, 1929. (This is catalog #189, November, 1929.) Item #93, p. 12, is a letter dated 1899 by Mrs. Eddy. It has been identified by the Church History Department (the predecessor to the Mary Baker Eddy Library) as having been written by Mrs. Eddy on February 8, 1899.

—     [Excerpted page from an American Art Association – Anderson Galleries auction catalog, Sale Number 3891, for dates February 26 and 27, 1931.] Item #225  is a first edition of Science and Health inscribed by Mrs. Eddy to the husband of her eldest sister, Abigail Tilton, “Alex H. Tilton, From, The ‘Author.’ ” The copy was for many years owned by Charlotte Atkinson, the niece of Alex Tilton.

—    [Excerpted page from an unidentified auction catalog for the first session of an auction on March 27, 1934.] Item #56, p. 13, is a first edition of Science and Health . The next item on the same page is a letter purportedly by Mrs. Eddy, dated January 5, 1902. The text seems doubtful.

—     Rare Books, Autographs, Americana Stamps and Miniatures. . . . New York: American Art Association, Inc., 1937. (This is for a sale from many sources, April 14 and 15, 1937.) Item #106, p. 53, is the pen used by Mrs. Eddy to write Science and Health, “Length 7 ¹/₄ inches. With gold nib and ivory handle. In a special glass-topped wooden hinged case.” The catalog then gave an account of how a Miss Merrill, about 1900, had given the pen to the then owner, J. L. Henegan, and told how she had given the pen to Mrs. Eddy one Christmas. Several years later she called on her and saw the pen and commented on it. Mrs. Eddy said she had used it constantly in writing Science and Health. Mrs. Eddy gave it back with the reported comment: “. . . you may have the pen, and I hope it will always write to glorify God.” The authentication was signed and notarized in July, 1935.

Note: It it likely that Mrs. Eddy used more than one pen to write the original manuscript for Science and Health. In 1933 Frederick Remington printed facsimile reproductions for his copy of a pen that Mrs. Eddy gave to Daniel Spofford that she said she used to write the book. See the separate listing for that item, under 1933.

—   American Literature 1693-1900. . . . Boston: Edward Morrill & Son, 1940. (This is the very first catalog issued by Morrill & Son, which later owned the remnants of the Allan A. Beauchamp collection, which it had purchased from Jack Neiburg.) Item 224, p. 24, lists the extremely rare I.O.O.F. magazine, The Covenant, (August, 1846), which included Mrs. Eddy’s (then Glover) novelette, “Emma Clinton, or a Tale of the Frontier[s].”

—     Autograph Letters [,] Manuscripts and Rare Books. . . . New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., 1941. (This is Part Two of the auction of the entire collection of John Gribbel, January 22, 23, and 24, 1941.) Item 185, p. 49, lists an extraordinary collection of twenty letters by Mary Baker Eddy ranging from April 6, 1882, to January 6, 1904. Also in my collection is Part One of the catalog, which is includes, pp. 55-56, important Samuel Clemens material on Christian Science, including his letters to Frederick W. Peabody.

—     Autograph Letters [,] Documents [,] Manuscripts. . . . New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., 1945. (This is the fourth and final part of the auction of The American Autograph Shop, March 20, 1945.) Item 125, p. 17, lists an A.L.S. from Mrs. Eddy to Adolph Stevenson (which would have been from 1908) along with the original envelope.

—   Autograph Letters [,] Manuscripts and Documents. New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., 1947. (This is the auction of collection of Charles Calmer Hart, February 25, 1947.) Item 74, p. 20, lists an A.L.S. from Mrs. Eddy to Adolph Stevenson (which would have been from 1908) along with the original envelope. This appears to the same letter as was sold above in 1945. The letter refers to Mrs. Eddy objecting to the width of the carriage.

—   Important Autograph Letters and Manuscripts . . . . New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., 1949. (This is the auction of the collection of Mrs. James Gore King, Mrs. Frederick Lowden Wierdsma and other sources, May 3, 1949.) Items 209, p. 40, is a copy of the second edition of Science and Health with the following inscription, “To Mrs. Emerson With respects of the Author, M.B.G.E.” This is believed to be the wife of Ralph Waldo Emerson. This copy is now in my collection.

—   Autograph Letters [,] Manuscripts and Documents. New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., 1950. (This is the auction of collection of Oliver R. Barrett, October 30 and 31, 1950.) Item 341, p. 86, lists an A.L.S. from Mrs. Eddy to “Mrs. Whitney” (actually Abbie Whiting, this original letter is in my collection), dated January 17 [1881]. This copy is now in my collection. On the same page, item #342, is an A.N.S. on a leaf advertising the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, dated September 22, 1887, in which Mrs. Eddy invited the bearer to her next class which was to start on October 3, 1887. (Also in my collection is Carl Sandburg’s book, Lincoln Collector, on the incredible Oliver R. Barrett Abraham Lincoln collection.)

—     [Excerpted page from The Scribner Book Store catalog, No. 136 (January, 1950).] New York: The Scribner Book Store., 1950. Item #100, p. 20, is a copy of the 1875 first edition of Science and Health, with an autograph note pasted in (inaccurately transcribed as follows): “Many thanks for your dear face in photograph you shall have mine when I get one you can really prize. Put the erata [sic] in the last leaf of the book with mucilage or let me do it for you. Ever yours MBG.” This copy is in my collection, and here is how I have transcribed the note:

Many tender thanks for your dear face in photograph [;] you shall have mine when I get one you can recognize [.] Put the erata [sic] in the last leaf of the book with mucilage or let me do it for you.

                            Ever yours    MBG--

—     A Catalog of Books [,] Chiefly First Editions. Melrose, MA: James O’Neill, 1956. Catalog No. 2? (Summer 1956). This is an excerpt only from the catalog, with item #70 the extraordinarily rare broadside produced of Mrs. Eddy response to the claim that Ralph Waldo Emerson was the author of Science and Health. This copy had previously been advertised (in 1954) by Jack Neiburg. The wording of this item is reproduced in My., 304.

 —    Historical Autographs . . . . New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., 1958. (This is the auction of the collection of Clendenin J. Ryan, November 5 and 6, 1958.) Item 74, p. 21, lists an undated metaphysical statement from Mrs. Eddy in her handwriting.

—   Books First Editions . . . . New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., 1959. (This is the auction of collection of Dr. Frank L. Pleadwell and others (including important items from the family of Adam H. Dickey), April 28 and 29, 1959.) Items 159 through 179, pp. 27-31, include an important collection of Christian Science material. In addition to many editions of Science and Health as well as other extremely rare Christian Science material, this includes the following autograph material of Mrs. Eddy: 

[Item #168:] the 21st edition of Science and Health inscribed by Mrs. Eddy to Mrs. George H. Bradford as follows: “With respects and love from the author.” This was given on October 22, 1886. This copy is in my collection.

[Item #175:] The only inscribed copy ever recorded of Mrs. Eddy’s privately printed work, Poems, which was printed late in 1910 in only 100 copies. The inscription reads: “Mary Baker Eddy to Mr. Adam H. Dickey C.S.B.” Dickey wrote the preface for the book. In 1959 Roy Garrett Watson, the long-time Treasurer of The Mother Church, purchased this book for $240, with the promise that the book would be left to The Mother Church in his will, which it was. I saw the book at Watson’s apartment about 1979. Watson was a pupil of Adam Dickey.

[Item #176:] 89th edition of Miscellaneous Writings by Mrs. Eddy (1909), inscribed as follows:  “Mrs. Lillian S. Dickey, C.S.B., Lovingly Yours Mary Baker Eddy. July 9, 1909.” (Note: the “Yours” was recorded as lower case in the 1985 Sang catalog listed below.)

[Item #177:] 1909 edition of Science and Health, inscribed by Mrs. Eddy as follows: “My best gift. M.B. Eddy.” Adam Dickey recorded that this leather-bound copy of Science and Health was given to him on March 25, 1909.

[Item #178:] Ninth edition (1909) of Joseph Armstrong’s book, The Mother Church, inscribed as follows: “To Mr. Adam Dickey. With love. Mary Baker Eddy. Feb. 14, 1910.”

[Item #179:] Helen Young, Scriptural Healing [1907], inscribed as follows: “To Mr. Adam H. Dickey, C.S.B.  Mary B.G. Eddy.” (Note: it is perhaps significant that Mrs. Eddy’s inscription in the same book for Calvin Frye wrote: ““To Mr. Calvin A. Frye C.S.D. Affectionately  gratefully Mary B.G. Eddy A.D.  1908.” This latter copy is in my collection.)

—   Charles Hamilton Autographs, Inc. The Golden Octavo. Catalog 37. New York: Charles Hamilton Autographs, Inc., [1960]. This autograph catalog includes two letters from Mrs. Eddy to Archibald McLellan. In first one, item #89, p. 12 (with a partial facsimile of the letter on p. 13), Mrs. Eddy asks McLellan for his help in editing her article for publication. (The letter is dated May 14, 1903.) Price $350. In the second letter, item #90, Mrs. Eddy also asks McLellan for help in spelling and punctuation because she is so busy and harried with other duties. (The letter is dated July 7, 1904.) Price $265.

—   American and European Manuscripts . . . . New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., 1963. (This is the auction of the collection of Gen. Culver C. Sniffen and other sources, December 3, 1963.) Items 58, p. 16, is a letter from Mrs. Eddy to “Mr. [William Andrew] Johnston” (of the New York World), dated November 28, 1905, in which she made slight change to her article, “The Significance of Christmas.” In my collection is a slightly earlier letter to Johnston on the same subject, which is described earlier. Note: in this catalog, #35, p. 10, is an important Samuel Clemens letter, dated April 17, 1903, to Livingston Wright, who claimed that his friend James H. Wiggin had “rewritten” Science and Health.

—   [Excerpt from Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc. This is sale #3713, dated January 21, 1975.] New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., 1975. Item 78, is the first copy of Science and Health off the press, specially bound in morocco leather, presented by Mrs. Eddy to Daniel H. Spofford. Included with the book was authenticating material from Daniel H. Spofford to A.A. Beauchamp, dated January 15, 1917. While the expected price was $5,000 to $10,000, no sale was made for unknown reasons.

—  Autographs Letters [,] Manuscripts [,] Documents. Newton, MA: The Rendells, [ca. 1978]. Catalog #134. This autograph catalog includes, item #42, p. 24, an inscribed copy of the sixteenth edition of Science and Health (1886): “Your affectionate teacher, the author, 1886.” The recipient is unknown. Price $1,750.

—    Catalogue of Valuable Autograph Letters [,] Literary Manuscripts and Historical Documents. London: Sotheby’s, 1978 Volume I. This autograph catalog includes, items 85 and 86, pp. [52] - 54, two letters by Mrs. Eddy to Mrs. Godfrey Pearse, dated March  5, 1898, and July 16, 1899. The former letter is largely reproduced in My., pp. 214-216 under the heading “The Laborer and His Hire.” This letter was purchased by John Howell-Books. Part of this letter is reproduced in facsimile on p. [52]. The second letter refers to a dream that Pearse had had.

—    Autographs & Rare Books [,] First Editions [,] Autographs and Manuscripts. Templeton, MA: Paul C. Richards—Autographs, [1980]. This autograph catalog includes, item #132, p. 21, a letter from Mrs. Eddy to Solon A. Carter, State Treasurer for New Hampshire, June 4, 1903, declining an invitation to meet because she is too busy and has already declined an invitation from a major New York newspaper. She commends the local Unitarians for their help. Price $2,500.

—    Rare Books XI. San Francisco, CA: Randall House, 1980. This catalog includes, item #115 (unpaginated), a copy of the extraordinarily rare second edition of the music sheet Feed My Sheep [1887], with Mrs. Eddy’s photograph pasted on the cover. That copy is in my collection.

—    Collectors’ Auction [:] Auction Sale #203 . Baltimore, MD: Harris Auction Galleries, Inc., 1981. This catalog includes, item #68, the original manuscript of Mrs. Eddy’s poem, “Woman Rights [:] What are They?” This was from late 1852 or early 1853 and was sent to the popular magazine, Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion. This manuscript is in my collection, having been purchased by Jack Birss at this 1981 auction.

—    Fine and Rare Books in Many Fields. Newburyport, MA: Hendsey, Inc., [1981]. This auction catalog includes, item #177, p. 24, a letter from Mrs. Eddy to her attorney, the New Hampshire Attorney General, Edwin Eastman, dated July 24 [1907] along with the inscribed copy of Miscellaneous Writings that she gave to him. Both items are in my collection.

—   Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana from the Collection of Mrs. Philip D. Sang. New York: Sotheby’s, 1985. This auction catalog includes, item #39 (unpaginated), an inscribed copy of Miscellaneous Writings (1909): “Mrs. Lillian S. Dickey, C.S.B., Lovingly Yours Mary Baker Eddy. July 9, 1909.” Item #40 is a first edition of Science and Health.

—    Early American Literature [,] Medicine & Science [,] Thought, Reform & History. Providence, RI: M&S Rare Books, Inc., [n.d.]. Catalog #67, This catalog includes, item #143, p. 22, a copy of the second edition of Science and Health (second issue of second edition evidently), inscribed by Mrs. Eddy: “Mr. Thomson Respects of the Author.” Price $2,250.

—   Americana.  Boston: Edward Morrill & Son, Inc., [n.d.]. Item 416, p. 27, is the extraordinarily rare privately printed first pamphlet by Lyman P. Powell on Christian Science, entitled The Anarchy of Christian Science. I picked this catalog up one year and on the flight back to California read through this catalog and called and purchased the item as soon as I could when I returned.

—   Autographs Letters [,] Manuscripts and Documents. . . . New York: Kenneth W. Rendell, Inc., [ca. 1988]. This autograph catalog includes, item #29, p. 8, an inscribed diploma for Mrs. G. P. Noyes, April 2, 1885, from the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. Price $2,500.

—    Autographs Letters [,] Manuscripts and Documents. . . . New York: The Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery, Inc., [ca. 1989]. This autograph catalog includes, p. 20, an inscribed diploma for Mrs. G. P. Noyes, May 8, 1886, from the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. Price $2,850. Also in my collection is a second catalog from Rendell with the document listed.

Photocopies of Catalogs

In addition to the above, my collection also has photocopies of key pages from the following printed catalogs (as opposed to typewritten holdings of collections, which also appear in my collection):

—    Miscellaneous Books [,] First Editions, Including Mark Twain & Walt Whitman [;] Christian Science – Over 200 Items. . . . Boston: Edward Morrill & Son, [n.d.]. Catalog 70. This likely is a listing of many of the books that Allan A. Beauchamp had, since the Morrills purchased the Beauchamp collections from Jack Neiburg. This catalog listed many rare items.

—    [Peter Decker catalog “List LL”]. New York: Peter Decker, [ca. 1953]. This has a handwritten note, “Greenley  [sic] Christian Science material.” This included several very rare items.

—    [Paul Elder catalog]. San Francisco: Paul Elder, [n.d.]. This includes a first edition of Science and Health and a collection of original letters by Mrs. Eddy in 1876 to her distant cousin.

—    A Catalog of Scarce and Old Books Relating to Christian Science. Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1922. Catalogue 25 (October, 1922). This includes many scarce items.

—   Rare Books in Christian Science. Saugerties, NY: Nathaniel Cowen, [1959]. This includes many rare items, including Adam Dickey’s book, Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy, which was priced at $500. This catalog is not the same as the Cowen “Catalog 3” which also gave only Christian Science material in 1959 and was sold on the online auction site eBay in 2001.

—   Christian Science Literature. Madison Lake Co., OH: Clare C. North, 1931. This catalog is an effort to sell the collection amassed for $7,500 if the sale can be made in sixty days. The catalog is dated October 26, 1931.

In addition to the above, my collection also includes some extraordinarily rare typed catalogs of Allan A. Beauchamp. One such list, many pages long, includes an unbelievable collection of early Baker family material.

No. 7  Catalogue of Books on The Great Pyramid [,] Anglo-Israel [,] The Bible [,] Prophecy and Related Subjects. Boston: Beauchamp Publishing Co., [ca. 1923].

This is a catalog of Allan A. Beauchamp’s business of promoting Anglo-Israel and related topics. Beauchamp took over from the inimitable C.A.L. Totten as the chief Anglo-Israel proponent in America.

[Rare Book Company catalog, dated October, 1924.]  [New York: Rare Book Company, 1924.]

This scarce catalog was a gift from the later owner of the Rare Book Company, Ralph Geradi, to Jack Birss--who in turn gave it to me in 1993. This catalog contains the first printing of a letter from Mrs. Eddy to her printer Mr. [Edward N.] Pearson, dated January 10 [1894]. In the letter she explained that she was withdrawing the publication of Christ and Christmas because students were making a "Golden Calf" of the book.

Interestingly, this early catalog stated that "Early Christian Science Literature is getting very scarce." Nonetheless, the catalog offered twenty letters signed by Mrs. Eddy for $750.

In the history of Christian Science collecting, there have been a limited number of rare book dealers who have specialized in Christian Science material sufficiently to have been a major source of rare material to knowledgeable collectors. Some of those dealers were:

—    Allan A. Beauchamp [Massachusetts, varied locations]

—    Smith & McCance [Boston]

—    Rare Book Company [New York City | Freehold, N.J.]

—    Dawson’s [Los Angeles]

 —    John Howell-Books [San Francisco]

—    Paul Elder & Company [San Francisco]

—    Jack Neiburg [Boston area]

—    Morrill & Son [Boston]

(This does not include such Boston book dealers such as Goodspeed's and Brattle Book Shop that have had Christian Science material over the years.)

In my collection is a bound collection of catalogs from Dawson’s, inscribed by Ernest Dawson in 1932 to an employee of the firm. These catalogs include many rare works on Christian Science, including several original letters by Mrs. Eddy. Perhaps the most important catalog is the one from February, 1931, which attempted to sell the John V. Dittemore collection, as described in the following manner:

"We offer for sale the collection  of a former Director of the Mother Church of Boston.  We believe this to be the most valuable and most intimate collection of material  relating to Mrs. Eddy, that has ever  been offered for sale.

Numerous Original signed letters of Mrs. Eddy, Manuscript Genealogy, Calvin Frye's  Original Diary, First Editions, Phamplets [sic], Portraits, many manuscripts, books and articles never published.

Each item priced separately. You are welcome to examine these precious memorials of  Mrs. Eddy without obligation.

A typed list of the more important items will be mailed on request."

On July 1, 1932, Allan A. Beauchamp wrote to Hermann Zadek of the Rare Book Company, saying:

"A man was in here [in his Boston shop] yesterday and said that the  other day he took some stuff in to McCance and McCance said he had a 5000.00 collection of Dittemore on sale. You might skin a bit of cream by coming over if it is  unsold."

Zadek wrote to Beauchamp the next day:

"Mr. McCance had the Dittemore items for sale several months and evidently does not seem to have very much success with it. In fact, Mr. Dittemore had shipped all his items to Mr. Dawson who had advertised and  had only sold a few of them. After those items were returned Mr. Dittemore made the  arrangement with Mr. McCance and I wish both of them good luck."

(The above are from photocopies of the original letters which are in my collection.)

Included with my collection are excerpted mimeographed pages from Dawson’s, ca. 1931, of many of the extraordinary holdings in the Dittemore collection. (The pages do not comprise the complete mimeographed list, unfortunately.) This partial list of some of the extraordinary holdings of the Dittemore collection is otherwise unpublished.

The Christian Science Library of the Late Mrs. Annie V. C. Leavitt, C.S.D., of Buffalo, N.Y., Together With a Few Other Sources, [an auction catalog issued by Frank J. Wilder]. Somerville, MA: Frank J. Wilder, 1930.

This important auction was held on October 15, 1930, just a short distance from The Mother Church. This catalog included a few letters by Mrs. Eddy and many rare books (some inscribed by Mrs. Eddy), pamphlets and assorted other nice items.

The following items listed in this 1930 catalog are now in my collection:

Item #26: Helen Young, Scriptural Healing, inscribed by Mrs. Eddy to Calvin Frye.

Item #166: James Terry White, Captive Memories, with Mrs. Eddy’s Pleasant View calling card tipped in with her handwritten note on it.

Western Americana Including Items Unique and Interesting, [a catalog issued by Paul Elder and Company]. San Francisco: Paul Elder and Company, 1931.

While there are several important catalogs relating to rare Christian Science material, starting with the Wilder auction catalog of 1930 and the John Howell-Books catalog of 1980, interestingly, to my way of thinking, the three dealers that offered in their catalogs the most interesting and otherwise unobtainable Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science material were Paul Elder in San Francisco, Jack Neiburg in Boston, and Allan A. Beauchamp in Winchester, MA and other locations. (It can certainly be argued that Smith & McCance in Boston in the 1920s-1950s and the Rare Book Company in New York City/Freehold, N.J. offered a broader selection of rarities over a several decade period of time, but much of this material never made it to their catalogs.)

This extraordinary catalog includes the following ultra (and legendary) rarities (via John V. Dittemore?):

—    Sally Wentworth’s manuscript version of “The Science of Man, or the Principle Which Controls All Phenomena.”

—    Manuscript by Mrs. Eddy in her handwriting, “Private Instructions for Healing,” with two additional pages, possibly in Mrs. Eddy’s handwriting, of related subject matter.

—    Two letters and a postcard from Mrs. Eddy from the 1870’s of great importance relating to her relationship with and marriage to Asa G. Eddy. One of these letters was listed in the Talbot sale catalog in 1911. (These first three items, collectively, were priced at $17,500.)

—    Holograph poem by Mrs. Eddy, “Home on High Rock.” This is possibly the same poem published by Mrs. Eddy (then Patterson) on July 9, 1864, in the Lynn Weekly Reporter, entitled “The High Rock Concert.” This was priced at $1,500.

—    Holograph poem by Mrs. Eddy, “Alone with God.” This document was signed by “Mary M.B. Glover” and was inscribed “For M. [Mr?] Geo. H. Allen. From his Teacher, M.M.B.G.”  This was priced at $1,500.

—    A Bible, dated 1865 from Philadelphia, inscribed by Mrs. Eddy (then Glover) to Geo. H. Allen. This was priced at $1,500.

Included with this catalog is an important letter from Paul Elder to Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr., November 16, 1931, regarding the contents of this catalog and the availability to Carpenter of such extraordinarily rare material.

Also in my collection are photocopies of pages from other Elder catalogs (obtained by me from the files of John Howell-Books) of other ultra rare material.

[Undated catalog produced by Jack Neiburg, probably in the late 1940s or early to mid-1950s, entitled Phantom Firsts Number 2, which included some ultra rare Christian Science material.]

Extraordinarily rare. Jack Neiburg purchased the estate of Allan A. Beauchamp and had some ultra rare material for sale, including original printed material by Mrs. Eddy that I still have never even seen, such as a separate publication of her Reply to McClure’s Magazine. (This was recorded as having Mrs. Eddy’s facsimile signature at the bottom, with a handwritten note, “To be released for publication on and after Saturday, January 5th, 1907.”) It was priced at $50.00 One example of an item in my collection that came from the Neiburg catalog is the ultra rare broadside printing of Mrs. Eddy’s response to the Literary Digest, in My., 304-305. It was priced at $37.50. The third and final item listed is also in my collection, the broadside produced by Calvin Frye and Arthur T. Buswell in 1885 to respond to the comments of Louisa May Alcott. It was priced at $75.00. (I discussed that broadside in an earlier blog post.)

A Catalogue of Books Relating to Christian Science [:] Including Important Editions and Autographed Copies of Mary Baker Eddy’s Works, [Catalogue 51, produced by John Howell-Books]. San Francisco: John Howell-Books, 1980.

In 1979, Warren R. Howell, owner of John Howell-Books, called me one Sunday evening to say that he was about to purchase a large collection of rare Christian Science material and could I help him catalog and price it. I readily agreed to do so and over a several month period wrote historical descriptions of many of the items in the collection. (The physical description of the books was done by the staff.) While still somewhat of a neophyte in the history of Christian Science books (I wish I knew then what I know now!), I was able to convince Warren Howell to issue the first full catalog on Christian Science (other than the Rare Book Company catalogs) since the Wilder auction in 1930 (with the possible exception of the Cowan catalog of 1959). In return for my work, I was allowed to take the unmatched collection of Mrs. Eddy’s business and calling cards. A shortage of funds kept me from purchasing more items. Despite my interest in buying material, I was as fair as I could be in pricing the material, even though in retrospect I see that some material was significantly underpriced.

The Mark Twain Collection of Nick Karanovich [Auction Catalog of Sotheby’s]. New York: [Sotheby’s], 2003.

This is a great Twain catalog, with a few references to Christian Science, p. 191. One was an inscribed copy of his 1907 book, Christian Science, as well as a presentation copy of Elbert Hubbard’s book, The Man of Sorrows. Both books had holograph notes on Christian Science by Twain.

The Marine Sale  London Tuesday 2 December 2003. London: Sotheby’s, 2003

This beautifully produced Sotheby’s catalog includes important items from the Charles Herbert Lightoller family collection of Titanic material. Lightoller, being the highest ranking officer of the Titanic to survive, was also a Christian Scientist. The collection of his material, pp. 82-88 [89?], includes the following letter from Lightoller to his wife while he was still in the United States (where he had been testifying in front of the United States Senate). The “Christian Science-ese” of the letter was not noted by the Sotheby’s cataloger:

“Dearest

I have felt confident that you would know the truth in all ways. I am afraid we shall not be able to catch this ship [the S.S. Lapland, headed for England], but shall have to wait until Thursday ­– the 'Celtic.' Up to the present I have not yet had time to buy a tooth brush – much less the cash (?). Fondest love my dear one Herbert.

It was a [glorious] demonstration.”

Considering the prestigious standing of Sotheby’s, the proofreading of the catalog was surprisingly atrocious.

 

 

 

Another rare and little-known pamphlet by Mrs. Eddy

While most of Mary Baker Eddy's published writings appear in her books published by the Christian Science Publishing Society, there are notable exceptions. Listed below is an example of a pamphlet that is both extraordinarily rare and little-known.

Christian Science versus Mind-Cure, by Mary Baker G. Eddy. [Boston]: [N.p.], [1886].

This leaf alerts the reader to the fact that one of the publishing houses in Boston had been inserting in copies of Science and Health flyers advertising the book Mind-Cure on a Material Basis by Sarah Titcomb. Mrs. Eddy in this leaf denounces the errors that are in the Titcomb book. (A copy of the Titcomb book is also in my collection.)

On one of three copies in my collection, on p. [1], are markings in brown ink which are in the style of Mrs. Eddy's editorial markings and may, in fact, be in her handwriting. The leaf ends with the following statement on p. 2:

Such works as S.E. Titcomb's and Dr. W.F. Evans' are flooding the land only to darken the light of Science, to turn the human mind away from truth and imbue it with error, thus engendering disease instead of healing it.

A copy of this leaf was recorded in the Otto Englisch collection in 1931. Also, a copy was recorded in the Allan Beauchamp collection.  It was mentioned in an unidentified list of rare Christian Science items for sale, which was in the files of John Howell-Books. However, no copy was in the collections of A.H. Greenly, Arthur Corey, Annie Leavitt, William Luce, etc. Ralph Geradi told me in 1985 that he thought that in some sixty years of selling Christian Science material they had sold perhaps eight copies (which sounds high since I have never seen it listed in any catalog from the Rare Book Company).

This leaf is not mentioned in the Robert Peel biographies of Mrs. Eddy, nor is it mentioned in Bates-Dittemore or any other biography of Mrs. Eddy.