Mrs. Eddy: The Biography of a Virginal Mind

Dakin, Edwin Franden. Mrs. Eddy: The Biography of a Virginal Mind. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1930.

This 1930 biography on Mary Baker Eddy appears in this contemporary bibliography only because of its role in the history of the Christian Science movement. Nearly a century after its publication, it reads like a conspiracy theory. Without access to church records, Dakin drew heavily on biographers Peabody and Milmine, who also sought to discredit Eddy. A pamphlet, “The Blight that Failed,” details the failed efforts of the Christian Science Church to suppress the book’s distribution, noting how the intense opposition to the book piqued curiosity, increased sales, and augmented the book’s popularity. An important comparison can be made between Dakin’s and Lyman Powell’s biographies of the same year. The only biographer with access to early Church historical records in 1930, Powell reversed his own negative view of Eddy from his 1907 book on Christian Science. Dakin seeks out evidence to prove his thesis that Eddy was an egotistical, sex-crazed, greedy, power-hungry fraud who ultimately lost her sanity. Accounting for differences between his own accounts and others who praised Eddy, Dakin explains: “Because she now allowed [her] students only to see her at her best, she appeared to them a wholly different woman than her neighbors had known in the old Lynn days.” (190-191).

ISBN-10: 1417908491
ISBN-13 (Hardcover): 978-1417908493

See also annotations:

Mary Baker Eddy: A Life Size Portrait by Lyman P. Powell

Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial by Robert Peel

Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery by Robert Peel

Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority by Robert Peel

Mary Baker Eddy by Gillian Gill

This resource is categorized as ‘polemic’ literature and is included in the bibliography for its historical value. For further explanation, click here.