"Author Talk"

Pushing the boundaries of a male-dominated historical record, biographer Gillian Gill has been bringing the stories of extraordinary women to light for two decades. Looking back at her work, Gill returned to The Mary Baker Eddy Library for an unscripted discussion of her subject matter: women of notoriety, influence, and accomplishment.

In Mary Baker Eddy, Florence Nightingale, Agatha Christie, and Queen Victoria, Gill explored the anomalous situations of leading women in a society that otherwise placed their gender in supporting roles or on the margins. Although operating in very different spheres, all four women faced similar challenges. Gill balances the personal with the public in her biographies, and the evening's conversation will focus on the cost of celebrity in such lifestyles, revealing common passions between these women, such as poetry, and a need for trust and seclusion. In this centenary year for both Eddy and Nightingale, The Mary Baker Eddy Library is investigating the meaning of a life of service in its programs and exhibits, which was an important theme in Gill's remarks.

Gill's ability to distill extensive historical research into resonant portraits that speak clearly to a modern audience has made her a successful author and teacher, having received her Ph.D. from Cambridge University and taught at Northeastern, Wellesley, Yale, and Harvard.

Her program was the third in the Library's centenary series, "Strength of Spirit—Engaging with Mary Baker Eddy 100 Years Later." To prepare for Gill's talk, the Library's Lending and Reference Services offered a brown bag book club discussion on the latest of this biographer's works: We Two.

Admission will be $15 or $10 for Friends of the Library.