This biography of an influential 19th-century woman follows Mary Baker Eddy from obscurity to her enormous fame as an eminent thinker and religious leader. From her Puritan upbringing, throughout her life of compassion for others and devotion to God, you can watch her development as an insightful student of the Bible and her rediscovery and practice of healing in the name of Christ Jesus. It also tells of her work to support and spread the practice of this Bible-based healing method: writing Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures; founding The Church of Christ, Scientist; teaching metaphysical healing; and founding and publishing magazines and The Christian Science Monitor--all of which continue today.

This controversial biography of the founder of the Christian Science church was serialized in McClure's Magazine in 1907-8 and published as a book the next year. It disappeared almost overnight and has been difficult to find ever since. Although a Canadian mewspaperwoman named Georgine Milmine collected the material and was credited as the author, The Life Of Mary Baker G. Eddy was actually written by Willa Cather, an editor at McClure's at that time. In his introduction to this Bison Book edition, David Stouck reveals new evidence of Cather's authorship of The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy. He discusses her fidelity to facts and her concern with psychology and philosophy that would take creative form later on. Indeed, this biography contains "some of the finest portrait sketches and reflections on human nature that Willa Cather would ever write."