A Story Untold: A History of the Quimby-Eddy Debate

McNeil, Keith. A Story Untold: A History of the Quimby-Eddy Debate. Carmel, IN: Hawthorne Publishing, 2020.

McNeil’s vast research on the subject of the Quimby-Eddy debates resolves complex questions that have persisted since the beginning of the 20^th century. The debate—between Mary Baker Eddy and Julius Dresser about the alleged influence that the theories of mental healer Phineas P. Quimby had on her later founding of Christian Science—began in 1883, when the Boston Post ran open letters between the two. It persisted well beyond both of their deaths. In 1921 a highly (sometimes falsely) edited collection of Quimby’s papers (further edited and copied by Quimby acolytes) was published. The Quimby family turned over a large amount of Quimby papers to the Library of Congress in 1930, and later a second batch to Boston University. McNeil provides the first serious scholarly examination of all the original Quimby papers in conjunction with the vast holdings of The Mary Baker Eddy Library. His 3-volume book covers many other aspects of the history of Quimby, Eddy, several other important figures during the 19^th century, as well as other broad but relevant subjects, such as Mark Twain and Christian Science, early animal magnetism in 1830s and 1840s America, the issue of the absolute vs. the relative in Christian Science, etc.

ISBN-13: 9780578713625

Click here to view this resource on the web. Though this annotation refers to a 2020 version of the book, the web resource is a 2026 version. An updated annotation is coming soon.

See also annotation:

Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought by Charles S. Braden