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Rating: 
Summary: Banned in Boston
Review: In 1906 Georgine Milmine, a newspaperwoman who had spent years assembling an enormous collection of material about Mary Baker Eddy but doubted her own ability to write on the subject, sold it to McClures Magazine. Interest in Christian Science was at its height at the time, and McClure's turned the project over to Willa Cather, who was 32 years old and had 32 published short stories to her credit, but whose days as a great novelist still lay in the future.Although Ms. Cather publicly disclaimed credit for the resulting series of articles which form the basis of this book, the editors provide convincing proof that she wrote it. In addition to being a highly entertaining account of the rise of one of the more fascinating characters in American religious history and the church she founded, the book provides extensive factual detail to anyone seriously interested in the history of either. While it is critical of Mrs. Eddy, it is also complimentary. Factually accurate and extensively documented., it is perhaps the most objective account available of a truly remarkable woman and her church. Although the book was the subject of favorable reviews when it was published in 1910, the response of the church was, predictably, less enthusiastic. According to the afterword, even before it was published, "three spokesmen for the Christian Science church visited the McClure's office and tried to suppress the series of articles. Christian Scientists were said to have later bought and destroyed most copies of the book, and library copies were said to be kept out of general circulation through constant borrowings by church members... The copyright for the Milmine book was purchased by a friend of Christian Science, the plates from which the book was printed were destroyed, and the manuscript also acquired. That this happened is supported by the fact that the manuscripts for the 'Milmine' book are held in the Archives and Library of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston." (pp. 497-498) Perhaps the most important contribution that this book makes is to present Mrs. Eddy and her church in the context of their time. There is a tendency today to present her as an early oppressed feminist. That interpretation should be compared with Ms. Cather's hard-nosed assessment:: "The result of Mrs. Eddy's planning and training and pruning is that she has built up the largest and most powerful organization ever founded by any woman in America. Probably no other woman so handicapped-so limited in intellect, so uncertain in conduct, so tortured by hatred and hampered by petty animosities-has ever risen from a state of helplessness and dependence to a position of such power and authority... The growth of her power has been extensive as well as intensive." (p. 480) In fact, the only complaint in an otherwise favorable review by a student of nervous disorders in the American Historical Review (Vol 15, July 1910), was that the author did "not do enough to explain the abnormal psychology of the founder of Christian Science-the record of hysteria, hypochondria, and the delusion of persecution." (p.498) Well worth reading
Rating: 
Summary: Inaccurate information
Review: More recent scolarship has shown this biography to be a polemic not a biography. See more scholarly work by Gillian Gill especially her comments on page 563 about Milmine's work.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Cult-Founder Expose
Review: Take the gaseous denunciation by the true believer as an endorsement of this timeless debunking biography. (CS complaints about this book are always based on "new information" kept under lock and key by the church so it can't be checked by any unbiased researcher.) Christian Science malarkey sentenced my sister to a needless early death.
Rating:
Summary: Inaccurate information
Review: Take the gaseous denunciation by the true believer as an endorsement of this timeless debunking biography. (CS complaints about this book are always based on "new information" kept under lock and key by the church so it can't be checked by any unbiased researcher.) Christian Science malarkey sentenced my sister to a needless early death.
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