The Life of Mary Baker Eddy

Wilbur, Sibyl. The Life of Mary Baker Eddy. Boston: The Writings of Mary Baker Eddy, (1907) 1991.

Wilbur first began writing about Eddy in Human Life Magazine in December 1906, countering articles published about Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy in the New York World newspaper. Wilbur turned her attention to Georgine Milmine’s series in McClure’s Magazine a few months later, and wrote her own series titled “The Story of the Real Mrs. Eddy.” Wilbur, a journalist, re-interviewed witnesses and reexamined documents, and obtained testimony from witnesses Milmine had not approached. Wilbur added much content when she reworked her series into a book. This work has been rightly criticized for its overly sympathetic tone, as well as for a recurrent lack of documentation. As biographer Gillian Gill notes: “With regard to both the Milmine and Wilbur biographies, I strongly recommend that any scholar interested in Mrs. Eddy consult the original magazine series. These stay closer to the documentary and interview data than the succeeding books do” (Gill, 569). It should also be noted that other sources indicate a complicated relationship between Milmine and Willa Cather regarding the actual authorship of the McClure’s Magazine series.

ISBN-10: 1010331965
ISBN-13 (Softcover): 978-1010331964

See also annotation:

The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science by Georgine Milmine