Christian Science
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Christian Science is Mark Twain's razor-sharp attack on a popular movement which was sweeping the country at the turn of the 20th century. One of the tenets of Christian Science is the healing of physical illness through prayer. Having recently lost a daughter to meningitis, Twain responded angrily to the notion that pain and sickness were easily surmounted. His deep-seated iconoclasm also caused him to take aim at Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, who he saw as self-promoting and fraudulent. Using all of the satire and wit for which he is famous, Twain pokes fun at a movement he feared would become a powerful force in the country.
Mark Twain
Harriet Elinor Smith is an editor at the Mark Twain Project, which is housed within the Mark Twain Papers, the world's largest archive of primary materials by this major American writer. Under the direction of General Editor Robert H. Hirst, the Project's editors are producing the first comprehensive edition of all of Mark Twain's writings.
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