About The Author

The author, Keith McNeil, is a 1977 graduate of Principia College; while there, in 1974, he began the start of his overriding interest in the history of Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science, which included the history of mental healing in America. The following year he became a collector of all aspects of that history, from standard fare books to rare privately printed books, copies of early manuscripts, original letters by Eddy and others, unpublished photographs and reminiscences, otherwise unknown historical records, etc. As a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, his main interest initially was of the history of Eddy and the Christian Science movement, but in time that interest broadened into a history of mental healing in America, including the history of New Thought.

A third of a century later, the collection has grown to encompass several rooms of material. That collection greatly served to enhance the research for this book.

This work has taken over ten years, with trips all over the country, not the least of which include the three locations of Quimby papers (Library of Congress, Boston University, and Houghton Library at Harvard), the Quimby family papers at the Belfast [Maine] Historical Society, the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity in Boston, the Longyear Museum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, the Daystar Foundation in Oklahoma City, the Addington INTA Archives in Mesa, Arizona, the Arthur Corey collection at Bridwell Library at SMU in Dallas, TX, in addition to important private collections. The research achieved at these locations, along with computerized searches and broadened capabilities via the Internet, allow this subject to be explored at a depth and breadth never before possible.

The goal has been to finally give a detailed history of the Quimby-Eddy debate along with several other controversial historical points. This is only Part One of what is planned as a two-part chronological history.

15 thoughts on “About The Author”

  1. I am sure lots of people interesting in Mrs. Eddy’s life have been waited for this incredible research/ I am looking forward to learning a lot from author’s research. Thank you kindly Keith for your great book! Warmly, Michael.

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    1. Hi Lisa,

      Yes, I have had the pleasure of spending countless hours at the MBE Library going through their files, original documents, letters, reminiscences, etc. That was an important part of the book.

      Thanks for checking in. I hope you have a chance to read through the book and like it.

      Keith

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  3. Dave Stevens CSB just told me of this book and I tried finding it on amazon and I could t find it. How can I get it?

    Thank you for your dedicated work.

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  5. This is very good work you’ve done here, but would hold more weight if it was published. I hope you decide to publish it at some point as a real book and more than just a free download; since that is what it deserves to be.

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    1. Actually I have been remiss in not updating this site. There is now a published version from Hawthorne Publishing in three hard-bound volumes. See http://www.hawthornepub.com and see their “Winds of Change” division. At the moment it is also available on eBay. Thanks for pointing this out. The new version is even better than the online version, more detailed, longer, and a bit better organized I think.

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  8. I’m a little confused about how to cite this. What is the relationship among these?

    (1) Google Books version (which I can’t access): Keith H. McNeil, A Story Untold: A History of the Quimby-Eddy Debate, vol. 1 (Hawthorne Publishing, 2020, no edition mentioned)

    (2) Online version: Keith [no H.] McNeil, A Story Untold: A History of the Quimby-Eddy Debate, part one (no publisher listed, 2017, second edition). But the link title calls this the “third edition,” and numbers the first section as “volume I” of three.

    This online version consists of three parts: a 78-pp. introduction; a part/vol. II that begins with ch. 1 proper, and is paginated from 1 to 445; and a part/vol. III from pp. 465-532. (What’s on pp. 446-464?) None of which adds up either to 300 (the Google Books page count) or to 1,500 (Cindy Safronoff’s estimate).

    I assume that the Hawthorne edition is the print publication, and has been edited down to 300 pages (from the online text). I also assume that the projected second part of Hawthorne would condense material already here online. And that the online “volumes” I,II, and III are the same as the projected two volumes of Hawthorne. It is harder for me to make sense of all the editions mentioned–I speculate that you posted the second edition in 2017, then made more changes to the text, but noted “third edition” only on the link title, not the title page. The Hawthorne version, then, may be an abridged version of this third edition. Am I close?

    Thanks, and good luck!

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    1. Hello. I agree that this can be confusing and thanks for the interest. The online version is the second edition or revised issue. The website should say second edition, and not third edition, for the one available. In 2020 I produced an expanded and updated hard bound book in three volumes. The title is the same. Hawthorne Books recently closed but you can purchase a copy from me if you like. The combined three volumes have a total of 1,562 pages. If you need more detailed bibliographical information, please let me know and I will be happy to help. You can email me at keithm@arrowbenefitsgroup.com.

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