Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority [Paperback]

Robert Peel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1980

Mary Baker Eddy: The Years Of Authority, 1892-1910 by Peel, Robert

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. (February 1980)
• ISBN-10: 0030567092
• ISBN-13: 978-0030567094
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,091,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peel's unbiased biography of Mary Baker Eddy is definitive, January 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority (Hardcover)

Mary Baker Eddy was a controversial woman, and biographers often either laud or vilify her depending on their personal bias. Peel's 3-volume biography is a welcome departure from this pattern. His work is carefully researched, with extensive references, and is probably the most definitive and complete biography of Mrs. Eddy on record. His impartial, objective viewpoint lets the reader make up his or her own mind regarding a noted religious and historical figure.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, biography, best of the three, September 14, 2006

By 

T. Sparfeld (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority (Hardcover)

Yes! I've finished the three-part Peel series! Peel's biographies are seen by many as the most complete and definitive account of Mary Baker Eddy's life. This is for good reason - Peel had some of the best access to documents regarding Mrs. Eddy, conducted some of the most thorough research, and had the most to say. While Peel is a Christian Scientist, non-Christian Scientists can enjoy these books.

I have read several other Mary Baker Eddy biographies, and feel these volumes, as well as the Gillian Gill tome, are in a class by themselves concerning the story of Mary Baker Eddy's life. Gill seems to be more concerned with the trials Mrs. Eddy had to face, especially the Next Friends suit. Neither have any glaring omissions, but Peel seems to focus more on Mrs. Eddy's vision of transforming her discovery of Christian Science into an international denomination and beyond. This makes sense - as a Christian Scientist, Peel is more concerned than Gill with the saga of Christian Science and how it is entwined with Mrs. Eddy's history.

While Peel may be slightly more sympathetic with Mrs. Eddy than Gill, neither one biographer provides a whitewash of her travails. While this is the most exciting volume of Peel's three volumes, I would not recommend one picking up the book right here. One would do much better to start at the beginning (The Years of Trial), slow as is may be. You'll enjoy it once it really starts to pick up.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Indefensible and disgraceful, January 16, 2012

By 

Laura Alethea - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority (Hardcover)

If there are large numbers of "Christian Scientists" agreeing with the reviewer who called this biography "definitive", it explains a lot.

For what it is worth, (and I don't think it's worth much even if it is true), it is reported that this third volume of the Peel trilogy was ghost-written by someone other than Robert Peel.