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Book Program Enhances High School, College Students’ Libraries
February 11, 2010
The Longyear Foundation’s annual gift book program is again providing copies of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, Mrs. Eddy’s other writings, the Bible, and the Christian Science Hymnal to new students at Principia Upper School in Saint Louis, Missouri, and Principia College in Elsah, Illinois.
“Some of our students are just starting their collections; others are gratefully adding to a collection already begun,” said Susan Thomas of Principia Upper School.
This fall more than eighty Principia Upper School students each chose a book to add to their personal library of Christian Science literature. Before the books were presented, Longyear Foundation bookplates were added to each book, inscribed with the student’s name. A few weeks after sending the books, Longyear received a large envelope filled with thank-you notes from the grateful recipients. One student wrote, “I have always wanted a words-only hymnal that I can take with me to camp, on trips, and even to school. I can’t wait to explore it!” Another student said, “Believe it or not, having my own personal set of books inspires me to read more out of Science and Health and the Bible.”
Mary Beecher Longyear
Mary Beecher Longyear, founder of the Longyear Historical Society, provided specifically in her deed of trust for Longyear to distribute copies of Mrs. Eddy’s writings, and she encouraged Longyear trustees to make gifts of these books. On her European travels, Mrs. Longyear herself gave away many copies of the Christian Science textbook, writing in The Christian Science Journal in 1897, “…I have been allowed to sow the seed in Paris, Dresden, and Rome. Fifty copies of Science and Health have been sold and distributed since last spring in Paris.”
Over the years, Longyear Foundation has sent copies of Mrs. Eddy’s writings to Australia, Brazil, Chile, England, Greece, Indonesia, Norway, Pakistan, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. Today, the Longyear Foundation annually makes gift books available to new students at Principia Upper School and Principia College. The Principia is a school for Christian Scientists that encompasses a college campus in Elsah, Illinois and the Principia School in Saint Louis, Missouri, serving students in pre-k through grade 12.
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