0.0 – Christian Science All Authors Publications

Adam H. Dickey was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1864. During the latter part of the 1800’s the Dickey family moved to Missouri. Mr. Dickey became interested in Christian Science after he witnessed its healing effects. Both he and his wife, Lillian S. Dickey, entered the healing ministry in Kansas City, Missouri, and became listed as Christian Science practitioners in The Christian Science Journal in 1900. Two years later they went through Normal Class with Edward A. Kimball, and became teachers of Christian Science. Soon afterwards they opened the Intra-State Christian Science Institute, with offices in both New York City and Kansas City. In February, 1908, Mr. Dickey was called to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to serve Mary Baker Eddy in various capacities. He was the last confidential secretary to join her staff before she passed on in December, 1910. Mrs. Eddy appointed Mr. Dickey to be one of the five Directors of The Mother Church in Boston, a position he held for fourteen years. He also served as Treasurer of The Mother Church and as a Trustee under the Will of Mary Baker Eddy. While Mr. Dickey was at Chestnut Hill, Mrs. Eddy secured a promise from him under oath that he would write a history about his years of service with her. The real purpose of such a history was to show the cause of Mrs. Eddy’s death to be mental murder. Sixteen years later he wrote these memoirs from records made while he was with her. He did not live to finish the book nor to elaborate on Mrs. Eddy’s urgent and specific request. His widow published the unfinished manuscript in 1927, a year after his death, and copies were distributed to Christian Scientists whom Mr. Dickey had taught. Mrs. Dickey did not consult the Board of Directors of The Mother Church concerning the publication of these memoirs. The Directors declared upon reading it that its issuance was a grave mistake. They insisted that Mrs. Dickey stop distribution of the book and withdraw every copy that had been distributed. They claimed that Mr. Dickey could have complied with Mrs. Eddy’s request by writing his memoirs for the church archives. The Board soon acquired the copyright to the book, the Dickey pupils were requested to turn in their copies to The Mother Church, and the book was promptly buried in the archives. A few printed and photostated copies remained in circulation, however, and copies of the book were quietly passed from hand to hand among Christian Scientists for many years. In 1980, it was once again put into print and so made to the public. This printing is a copy of the 1927 publication, with the spelling and capitalization left as it was in the original. The three items in brackets ([-]) have been inserted by the publisher. This book is unique among the many memoirs and biographies about Mrs. Eddy in that she requested Mr. Dickey to write it. Indeed, she made him promise to do so. This request was most unusual. There are records to show that she was very reluctant to agree to the publication of Sibyl Wilbur’s biography, The Life of Mary Baker Eddy. She discouraged other students from writing about her, because she did not feel they were broad enough — that is, they did not understand her well enough to write her life story. It would appear that she opposed a human account of her life by those who did not fully understand her or her discovery. But in the case of Mr. Dickey, she must have considered him sufficiently discerning that he could go beneath the surface of events and detect the real cause of her passing on. Unfortunately, he left the book unfinished, and therefore he did not fulfill his promise to relate her death to mental assassination. Even so, these memoirs are invaluable as a historical document, for they tell of the many obstacles that Mrs. Eddy faced in working to secure the future of her beloved Cause. Although Mr. Dickey’s book falls short of its original goal, it gives fascinating insights into the many aspects of Mrs. Eddy’s last two years