Mary Baker Eddy once referred to her primary work, Science and Health with key to the Scriptures, as "the outgrowth of my whole life ...." V00838. September 30, 1884. She first published the book when she was 54 years old. Over the next three and a half decades, she produced at least six major revisions and countless minor revisions of the book — a literary labor that has few parallels among single works by an author. The Library will house a collection of over 400 editions of Science and Health, including translations in 16 languages and English Braille.
The Library will also house her unpublished manuscripts and articles. Among these are her extensive notes on Genesis, which she wrote during the three years immediately following her discovery of Christian Science in 1866. She later wrote of these notes that ". . . she values them as a parent may treasure the memorials of a child's growth . ..." Science and Health, pp. ix—x. Another manuscript in the collection is an autobiographical work entitled "Footprints Fadeless." Compiled at the turn of the 20th century, this work and others found among the materials furnish glimpses of what Mrs. Eddy faced as a reformer, and as a woman who was introducing bold new concepts.
The letters of Mary Baker Eddy — previously unavailable to the public — form the core of the Library's collection. Ranging from spontaneous teenage poems to letters of blunt advice, from newsy family letters to messages of appreciation, these letters vividly illustrate both her tireless efforts to encourage and encourage and instruct others and her range of voices — as a leader, mentor, friend, and public figure.
