Sibyl Wilbur

Sibyl Wilbur O'Brien Stone (May 27, 1871 – July 21, 1946), best known as Sibyl Wilbur, was an American journalist, suffragist, and author of a biography of Mary Baker Eddy. She was a San Diego Branch Member of the National League of American Pen Women and a member of the New England Woman's Press Association.

Biography Sibyl Wilbur was born on May 27, 1871 in Elmira, New York to Dewitt and Anna Wilbur. Wilbur's parents both died when she young, and by 14 she had moved to Nebraska and begun teaching at a prairie school. Eventually she saved enough money to go to college and start a career in journalism. For over 20 years she wrote for major metropolitan newspapers in New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, and Boston, on topics such as women's rights, labor issues, and culture. She was politically active as an organizer in the Woman Suffrage Party in New York City, and spoke publicly on the topic. which, In 1908, became the basis her book The Life of Mary Baker Eddy. The book became the first church-authorized biography to be sold in Christian Science Reading Rooms. It was reprinted numerous times.

Although Wilbur was not a member of the church, Eddy later thanked Wilbur and the Concord Publishing Society for publishing the book.

The book includes content based on interviews of many people who knew Eddy before she was famous. The Mary Baker Eddy Library also notes criticism of the book for being "excessively laudatory" of Eddy, but says that "it was also based on factual reporting and helped counter basic misinformation about Eddy and Christian Science that was rampant at the time."

Publications The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (New York: Concord Publishing Co., 1908)