Edwin Franden Dakin (1898–1976) was an American advertising executive and author who wrote a critical biography of

Mary Baker Eddy Mary Baker Eddy (July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910) was an American religious leader and author who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, in New England in 1879. She also founded ''The Christian Science Monitor'', a Pulitzer Prize-winning s ...

Biography

Dakin was associate editor of the weekly magazine ''Commerce and Finance '' (1922-1926). He also edited the magazine ''Plane Talk''. He is best known for his book ''Mrs. Eddy: The Biography of a Virginal Mind'', a critical biography of

. It was the first biography to document Eddy's use of

morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...

.Bruccoli, Matthew J; Baughman, Judith S. (2002). ''The Last Romantic: A Poet Among Publishers : The Oral Autobiography of John Hall Wheelock''. University of South Carolina Press. pp. 98-99. It received positive reviews in academic journals. In 1929,

H. L. Mencken Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...

commented that Dakin "has been at pains to unearth the precise facts and he sets them forth carefully and pleasantly. The Christian Science press-agents, of course, will damn him as a slanderer, but that fact is unimportant. He has made a valuable contribution to American history." The ''

Dictionary of American Biography The ''Dictionary of American Biography'' was published in New York City by Charles Scribner's Sons under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). History The dictionary was first proposed to the Council in 1920 by h ...

'' described it as the "most impartial and scholarly biography" of Eddy. It has also been described it as "a superbly documented biography." Psychiatrist

Karl Menninger Karl Augustus Menninger (July 22, 1893 – July 18, 1990) was an American psychiatrist and a member of the Menninger family of psychiatrists who founded the Menninger Foundation and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. Biography Menn ...

described the book as "remarkable".

Ernest Sutherland Bates Ernest Sutherland Bates (14 October 1879 – 4 December 1939) was an American academic and writer. He taught English and philosophy at Oberlin College from 1903 to 1905, the University of Arizona until 1915, and the University of Oregon from then ...

praised the book for its judicious examination of sources. Literary critic Daniel Burt wrote that it is a detailed biography and Dakin achieved an "objectivity rare in books about Eddy."

Controversy

When Dakin's biography of Mary Baker Eddy was published in 1929, Christian Science officials from the

Mother Church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metro ...

tried to censor and suppress the book. Christian Scientists complained that the biography was biased and negative towards Eddy. The Mother Church threatened a number of bookstores that were selling it with foreclosure of mortgages.

John Hall Wheelock John Hall Wheelock (September 9, 1886 – March 22, 1978) was an American poet. He was a descendant of Eleazar Wheelock, founder of Dartmouth College. The son of William Efner Wheelock and Emily Charlotte Hall,Charles Scribner's Sons Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawli ...

with "malicious animal magnetism". Christian Scientists threatened to boycott stores that displayed the book for sale. They were unsuccessful and Dakin's biography was republished by Scribner's in 1930. It was issued with a pamphlet that documented the attempted suppression, ''The Blight that Failed''. William J. Whalen has noted that the Christian Science attempts of censorship "backfired and turned the book into a best seller".

''Cycles: The Science of Prediction''

In 1947, Dakin along with

Edward R. Dewey Edward Russel Dewey (1895–1978) was an economist who studied cycles in economics and other fields. Dewey's cycles work Dewey first became interested in cycles while Chief Economic Analyst of the Department of Commerce in 1930 or 1931 because ...

, published the book ''Cycles: The Science of Prediction'' which argued the United States economy was driven by four cycles of different length. Robert Gale Woolbert wrote that they "adduce interesting second-hand statistics to the effect that cyclical tendencies have been observed in industrial, biological and solar phenomena."

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...

dismissed their theory as pseudoscience saying:

'Cycles: The Science of Prediction''is not a scientific book: the evidence underlying the stated conclusions is not presented in full; data graphed are not identified so that someone else could reproduce them; the techniques employed are nowhere described in detail. ..Its closest analogue is the modern high-power advertisement—here of book length and designed to sell an esoteric and supposedly scientific product. Like most modern advertising, the book seeks to sell its product by making exaggerated claims for it .. showing it in association with other valued objects which really don't have anything to do with it .. keeping discreetly silent about its defeats or mentioning them in only the vaguest form .. and citing authorities who think highly of the product.

Publications

''Mrs. Eddy: The Biography of a Virginal Mind''
(1929) *''Cycles: The Science of Prediction'' (1947) [with

]

References

External links

''Mrs. Eddy, by Edwin Franden Dakin''
''

The Stanford Daily ''The Stanford Daily'' is the student-run, independent daily newspaper serving Stanford University. ''The Daily'' is distributed throughout campus and the surrounding community of Palo Alto, California, United States. It has published since the U ...

'', Volume 76, Issue 48, 9 December 1929.
''The Press: Scientific Censorship''
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', 16 December 1929. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dakin, Edwin Franden 1898 births 1976 deaths American advertising executives 20th-century American biographers American magazine editors Critics of Christian Science Writers from Missouri