Science and Health by Mary Baker Glover, Boston, 1875

Charleston (S. C.) News -Courier

Science and Health by Mary Baker Glover, Boston, 1875. has become one of the scarcest and most valuable of American nineteenth century first editions. Indeed, all the early editions of Mrs. Eddy's best known book and all interestingitems relating to Christian Science have a distinct and increasing value. The book collectors who conlined their attention a few years ago to rare editions of the works of the "eleven great American authors," Aldrich, Bryant. Emerson, Field. Hawthorne. Longfellow, Lowell. Poe. Thoreau, Whitman, and Whittier, have since added Mrs. Eddy's name to the list. The first appearance of the Science and Health of 1875 in the rare book market was in 1902, when a Boston dealer priced a copy at $125. A little later (January, 1903) a copy of the first edition brought $67 at a Boston book sale. A sentiment in Mrs. Eddy's autograph sold for $200 at the Actors Fair last year. Three of her letters were sold in this city Feb. 13 last, the highest priced item, three pages, octavo, dated Lynn, March 26, 1880, selling for $33, the other letters, both written in the same year, bringing $17 and $26 respectively. They were all secured by Sol Lichtenstein. The three letters recently sold are the only specimens which have come upon the market. They are all written to students. ...

The first edition of Science and Health contains eight chapters and four hundred and fifty-six pages. A scarcer book is Science and Health, Vol. II.. by Mary Baker G. Eddy, which was published in Lynn, Mass., in 1878. by Dr. Asa G. Eddy. It is octavo size, but with a frontispiece and only five chapters, pages one hundred and sixty-seven. Although styled "Volume II., on title-page and back, it really forms a continuation or supplemental volume to the 1875 work. It contains an introduction and three new chapters, together with two chapters (practically rewritten) from the first edition. The first copy known to have been offered by auction brought $60 in this city in December, 1905. A presentation copy from Mrs. Eddy sold for $80 in April, 1906; and in December of the same year another example, with the errata leaf, fetched $110, the record price.

In 1881 Dr. Eddy published in Lynn, in two volumes, the so-called "third edition revised" of Science and Health. It should have been called the second edition, the 1878 issue having been a continuation of the text of 1875. This edition has advanced in value from $11.25, paid in 1903. to $33, given in Aprill, 1907, and on Feb. 13 last it jumped to $80. Several of the later editions of Science and Health are valuable. The "ninth edition," Boston, 1884, subtitled "With a Key to the Scriptures," sold for $24 on Feb. 13. 1908. The key is an added chapter of twenty-four pages. The "twelfth edition." 1885. brought $26 at the same sale.

Even such editions as the 1886 issue (in one volume, with a portrait, sixteen chapters and five hundred and ninety pages), and that of 1888, the "thirty-third edition," bring from $5 to $25. A copy of the 1891 edtion has fetched $27, but it was a presentation example, given by the author to one of her students. A copy of one of the late editions of the book, with an inscription in Mrs. Eddy's autograph presenting the volume to Mrs. Stetson of New York City, realized $500 last May at the Actors' Fair. This is the second largest price ever paid for a book written by a living author, the highest quotation being given in 1899 for Kipling's "Schoolboy Lyrics, in 1881.

Mrs. Eddy's second publication seems to have been a pamphlet, entitled "The Science of Man, by which the Sick Are Healed. Embracing Questions and Answers in Moral Science. Arranged for the Learner by Mrs. Mary

Baker Glover," Lynn, 1876. The only copy ever offered for sale brought $42 in New York last year. Another edition, Lynn, 1879, with text rewritten, realized $24 at the same sale. A later issue, Boston, 1883, recently sold for $33. Her other publications include a broadside poem of eight stanzas, called '"Rock of Ages, by Mary Baker Glover," and dated "Lynn, May 15. 1876;" "Historical Sketch of the Church of Christ," two leaves, without place or date (a brief account of the struggles of Mrs. Eddy and her followers); Healing; a Lecture Delivered at Boston, April 18, 1880," Cambridge, 1880: prospectus of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, Boston, 1881 (?) ; "Private Directions for Metaphysical Healing," two leaves, no place or date, and a number of later lectures, "messages," etc. The leaflet called "Private Directions" sold as high as $22.

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