Due to the long-standing debate over Mary Baker Eddy’s use of morphine, the Mary Baker Eddy Library sought to resolve it in order to restore focus on Eddy’s larger record. Calvin Frye’s diaries had recorded several instances of Eddy’s use of morphine, but some claimed his diaries had been altered. A forensic analysis in 2021 concluded the diaries are reliable.
View AnnotationResources Discussing Morphine Use
The resources that include information on the controversy regarding morphine use are listed below. Click “View Annotation” to learn more about the resource. On each annotation page you have the ability to find related annotations based on different criteria.
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Rolling Away the Stone: Mary Baker Eddy’s Challenge to Materialism (2006)
Gottschalk, an intellectual historian, left his post at the Christian Science Committee on Publication in 1990, uncomfortable with the leadership of the Church. Still considered a leading Christian Science scholar despite his criticism, he conducted extensive archival research for this book. Gottshcalk focuses on the last two decades of Eddy’s life and her effort to protect and perpetuate her religious teaching.
View AnnotationMr. Dickey: Secretary to Mary Baker Eddy with Adam H. Dickey’s “Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy” (2005)
Mary Baker Eddy wanted Dickey to write her biography, having rejected other biographical attempts as either too shallow or hostile. This book first consists of Baxter’s analysis of Dickey and his role as Eddy’s helper 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.
View AnnotationMary Baker Eddy (1998)
Gill, a feminist historian and biographer, offers a fresh view of Mary Baker Eddy’s achievements in the light of obstacles faced by women in her time. Without access to Church archives Gill relied on Peel’s archival research. Gill’s unique contribution challenges the traditional biographers’ view of Eddy as a hysterical invalid who abandoned her son and stole her ideas.
View AnnotationMary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority (1977)
Volume three of Peel’s trilogy covers the final chapters of Mary Baker Eddy’s life—1892-1910—a time when Eddy struggles to balance her movement’s need for organization and preservation with its life-giving inspiration and revelation. As productive as these final decades were, Eddy’s life would continue to be plagued by personal attacks and legal suits that ultimately collapsed.
View AnnotationBliss Knapp Christian Scientist (1976)
Houpt’s book contains valuable primary sources for the history of Christian Science in the decades before and after Mary Baker Eddy’s death in 1910. It covers the life and career of Bliss Knapp, who devoted his life to serving Eddy and her cause. He is best known as the leading proponent of Eddy’s prophetic role as the woman in the Apocalypse.
View AnnotationMary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial (1971)
Volume two of Peel’s trilogy covers Mary Baker Eddy’s expanding years of 1877 to 1891, her crucial period of trial and error as she fights for the survival of her nascent movement. She organizes her church, clarifies her revolutionary interpretation of the Bible, and teaches pupils who will carry the message of Christian Science beyond New England to a wider world.
View AnnotationMary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery (1966)
“Discovery” is the first in a three-volume biography of Mary Baker Eddy by Peel, a literary critic, counter-intelligence officer, and editorial consultant to the Christian Science Church. Striving for a straightforward account, without apologetics or polemics, Peel examines Eddy’s intellectual and spiritual path of discovery, from her life of obscurity and loss to her search for health and spiritual breakthrough.
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