Mr. Dickey: Secretary to Mary Baker Eddy with Adam H. Dickey’s “Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy”

Baxter, Nancy Niblack. Mr. Dickey: Secretary to Mary Baker Eddy with Adam H. Dickey’s “Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy.” Carmel, IN: Hawthorne Publishing, 2005.

The first half of this book consists of Baxter’s analysis of Dickey and his role as a helper for Mary Baker Eddy in her last years, and his own leadership role after her death in 1910. The latter half consists of Dickey’s memoirs which Eddy requested that he write. Eddy had rejected other biographical attempts as either too shallow or hostile, and she wanted a biographer with deeper insights. Dickey’s memoirs were finally published by his wife in 1927, but without the consent of the Christian Science Board of Directors. They were concerned that its contents could be used to attack and ridicule Eddy because of its focus on her challenges. At the Board’s request, Lillian Dickey withdrew the book. Baxter’s goal was to provide historians with a broader perspective for analysis of this critical period of the church’s history. Her 2005 publication now makes full use of Dickey’s memoirs, access to the Mary Baker Eddy Library, and Keith McNeil’s personal collection to tell her story. Dickey wanted to convey Eddy’s extraordinary spiritual strength and why her helpers were so committed: “[I]t has always been perfectly … clear to me why it must be that a woman should give birth to this new religion and stand and defend it against the world…” (135).

ISBN-10: 0978716779
ISBN-13 (Softcover): 978-0978716776

See also annotation:

Mr. Dickey: Secretary to Mary Baker Eddy with A Chestnut Hill Album by Nancy Niblack Baxter