In the year 1876, soon-to-be-famous Mary Baker Eddy “crossed swords” with Victoria Woodhull in the newspaper columns of the Lynn Transcript. At the time, Eddy lived here in this historic house in Lynn, Massachusetts.

To promote herself as a candidate for President of the United States, Woodhull had been traveling the country for several years giving lectures on a counter-culture philosophy she called “social freedom.” She had publicly declared war on marriage, and she advocated repealing all laws restricting sexuality, including legal marriage. Instead, she would have society adopt an anything-goes culture for relationships called “Free Love.”

When Woodhull came to lecture in Eddy’s hometown, Eddy and Woodhull ended up having a public exchange of hostile words that makes today’s civic dialogue seem tame. The irreconcilably conflicting viewpoints of Eddy and Woodhull, expressed so vehemently in those letters to the editor, are explored in-depth in a comparative biography by Cindy Safronoff called Crossing Swords: Mary Baker Eddy vs. Victoria Claflin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage (This One Thing, July 4, 2015). Eddy and Woodhull both publicly advocated for women’s rights, but they held polar opposite political positions on how empowering women should impact the institution of marriage.

At the time of this exchange, Eddy had finally gotten settled in to a home of her own at 8 Broad Street in Lynn, a historic village turned industrial-hub near Boston. After years of instability, moving around from one boarding house to another, she had accumulated enough money from teaching and her work as a healer to purchase the house. A year prior in 1875, she had published the first edition of her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which she completed at her small writing desk under the skylight in the attic room of this home. She very likely wrote her letter to the editor harshly condemning Victoria Woodhull’s free-love campaign here too, on the very same desk.

Eddy wrote her book to explain her successful system of healing the sick without medicine, which she called Christian Science. The book included a chapter called “Marriage” in which she explained her Puritan-influenced views on the topic. Throughout the book she emphasized how sexual conduct relates to the ability to heal the sick through prayer. Woodhull’s war against marriage was in the news and a topic of social discussions throughout the nation during the years that Eddy was writing the first edition of Science and Health. Eddy’s chapter Marriage had to have been written at least in part as a response to Woodhull’s infamous free-love campaign.  

The 8 Broad Street, Lynn, historic house, owned, managed, and recently lovingly restored by Longyear Museum of Chestnut Hill, MA, is well known to have been the place where Mary Baker Eddy completed and published her first book, launched her educational institution for her spiritual teachings, and founded the organizational structure that eventually became the Christian Science church center at the heart of Boston’s Back Bay.

This Lynn historic house is only now becoming known as the place where Eddy crossed swords with Victoria Woodhull over “free-love” in the year 1876. 

Read all about this little-known piece of Eddy’s history — the untold story of American’s nineteenth-century culture war — in the new award-winning nonfiction drama Crossing Swords: Mary Baker Eddy vs. Victoria Claflin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage by Cindy Safronoff.

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Readers’ Favorite just announced winners of the 2015 book award contest! Honorable mention for Nonfiction Drama goes to Crossing Swords: Mary Baker Eddy vs. Victoria Claflin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage by Cindy Safronoff (This One Thing, July 4, 2015). Honorable Mention is the equivalent of fourth place out of five award winners for the book category.

See the award certificate here:
Readers Favorite Honorable Award NonFiction Drama

The other award winners for Nonfiction Drama are Chiseled
A Memoir of Identity, Duplicity, and Divine Wine
by Danuta Pfeiffer (Gold), Keeping Mother’s Secrets
Surviving Terror and Betrayal Through Courage and Hope
by Tracy May (Silver), and Promising Forecast
A Miracle Rescue at Sea by Daniel David Jones and Arthur J. Higbee (Bronze).                          

Winning this award has the potential to bring a surge of exposure. On October 1, 2015, all of the award winners will be announced through a press release to 250,000 subscribers, including bloggers, journalists, and consumers, 35,000 opt-in journalists, and 500,000 libraries, bookstores, and schools, and advertised in two Publishers Weekly e-newsletters to 100,000 literary industry professionals.  Additional opportunities include an award ceremony and inclusion at a book fair in Miami, Florida, which could bring additional exposure.

Readers’ Favorite is only the first contest into which Crossing Swords has been entered. There will be several more, and this award brings hope for future successes still to come. Onward and upward!

Crossing Swords: Mary Baker Eddy vs. Victoria Claflin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage by Cindy Peyser Safronoff (This One Thing, July 4, 2015) is available on Amazon, by special order through your favorite local bookstore (through Ingram), and at a growing list of public libraries.

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