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{{short description|American journalist and feminist author}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Sibyl Wilbur O'Brien Stone
|image = Sibyl Wilbur.png
|birth_date = May 27, 1871
|birth_place = [[Elmira, New York]]
|death_date = July 21, 1946
|death_place = [[San Diego, California]]
|occupation = Biographer, journalist
}}
'''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]].<ref>Lyons, Louis S. (1922). ''Who's Who Among the Women of California''. Security Publishing Company. p. 155</ref><ref>Lord, Myra B. (1932). ''History of the New England Woman's Press Association, 1885–1931''. The Graphic Press. p. 197</ref>

==Biography==
Sibyl Wilbur was born on May 27, 1871 in [[Elmira, New York]] to Dewitt and Anna Wilbur.<ref>{{cite book |title=Who Was Who in American History: Arts and Letters |date=1975 |publisher=Marquis Who's Who |location=Chicago |page=584 |isbn=978-0-8379-3301-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/whowaswhoinameri00marq/page/584/mode/2up}}</ref> 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.<ref name="mbel">{{cite web |title=Women of History: Sibyl Wilbur |date=October 16, 2018 |url=https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/women-of-history-sibyl-wilbur/}}</ref> She was politically active as an organizer in the [[Woman Suffrage Party]] in New York City, and spoke publicly on the topic.<ref name="mbel"/>

She is most known for her writings on [[Mary Baker Eddy]], founder of [[The First Church of Christ, Scientist]], who she met in 1905 while interviewing her for the ''[[Boston Herald]]''. From 1906 to 1907, Wilbur wrote a series of thirteen articles about Eddy in the Boston magazine ''Human Life''<ref>[https://www.longyear.org/learn/research-archive/the-human-life-articles-on-mary-baker-eddy-by-sibyl-wilbur-1906-1907/ "The Human Life Articles on Mary Baker Eddy by Sibyl Wilbur: 1906 – 1907"]. Longyear Museum.</ref> 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 Room]]s.<ref name="Bates and Dittemore">[[Ernest Sutherland Bates|Bates, Ernest Sutherland]]; [[John V. Dittemore|Dittemore, John Valentine]]. (1932). ''Mary Baker Eddy: The Truth and the Tradition''. A. A. Knopf. p. 3</ref><ref>Gabriel, Ralph H. (1933). ''Reviewed Work: Mary Baker Eddy, the Truth and the Tradition by Ernest Sutherland Bates, John V. Dittemore''. ''[[The New England Quarterly]]'' 6 (1): 200–202.</ref> It was reprinted numerous times.<ref name="Dickson">Dickson, Carol E. (1998). ''Eddy, Mary Baker 1821–1910''. In Eleanor Amico. ''Reader's Guide to Women's Studies''. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. p. 305. {{ISBN|188496477X}}</ref>

Although Wilbur was not a member of the church,<ref name="mbel"/> she was friendly towards Eddy, and her articles and book were motivated in part to defend Eddy from a similar series of articles published around the same time by ''[[McClure's|McClure's Magazine]]'', which attacked Eddy and the church.<ref name="mbel"/><ref name=Warneck>{{cite book |last1=Warneck |first1=Robert |title=Christian Healer |date=2009 |publisher=CSPS |location=Boston, MA |pages=534–535}}</ref><ref>[[Sydney E. Ahlstrom|Ahlstrom, Sydney E]]. (1971). ''Eddy, Mary Baker''. In Edward T. James. ''Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 1''. [[Harvard University Press]]. p. 560. {{ISBN|0-674-62734-2}}</ref> Eddy later thanked Wilbur and the Concord Publishing Society for publishing the book.<ref>[[Mary Baker Eddy|Eddy, Mary Baker]]. (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/firstchurchofchr01eddy#page/298/mode/2up ''The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany'']. Boston: Allison V. Stewart. pp. 297–298</ref><ref>Kalijarvi, T. (1931). ''Reviewed Work: The Life of Mary Baker Eddy by Sibyl Wilbur''. ''Social Science'' 6 (3): 321–322.</ref>

The book includes content based on interviews of many people who knew Eddy before she was famous.<ref name="Warneck"/> There have been notable critics of the book over the years however, such as Christian Science critic [[John V. Dittemore]],<ref name="Bates and Dittemore"/> and [[Gaius Glenn Atkins]], a critic of [[new religious movement]]s in general, who attacked the book saying that it "touches lightly or omits altogether those passages in Mrs. Eddy's life which do not fit in with the picture which Mrs. Eddy herself and the church desire to be perpetuated."<ref>[[Gaius Glenn Atkins|Atkins, Gaius Glenn]]. (2014 edition, originally published 1924). ''Modern Religious Cults and Movements''. Routledge. p. 121. {{ISBN|978-1-138-77877-1}}</ref> 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."<ref name="mbel"/>

After writing her biography of Eddy, Wilbur continued to become even more involved with the women's suffrage movement,<ref name="Warneck"/> especially in [[San Diego, California]] where she moved in 1918.<ref name="mbel"/>

Wilbur 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]].<ref>Lyons, Louis S. (1922). ''Who's Who Among the Women of California''. Security Publishing Company. p. 155</ref><ref>Lord, Myra B. (1932). ''History of the New England Woman's Press Association, 1885–1931''. The Graphic Press. p. 197</ref>

==Publications==
*[https://archive.org/details/lifeofmarybakere01wilb/page/n19/mode/2up ''The Life of Mary Baker Eddy''] (New York: Concord Publishing Co., 1908)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Downs, Winfield Scott (1936). "Stone, Sibyl Wilbur" In ''Encyclopedia of American Biography''. New York: The American Historical Society.
*Howard, Stephen R. (2015). ''A Curator’s Perspective: Writings on Mary Baker Eddy and the Early Christian Science Movement''. Chestnut Hill, MA: Longyear Museum Press.
==External links==
*{{Commonscat-inline}}
*{{wikisource author-inline}}
{{Christian Science|state=collapsed}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilbur, Sibyl}}
[[Category:1871 births]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:American biographers]]
[[Category:American women journalists]]
[[Category:Christian Science writers]]
[[Category:Hamline University alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Elmira, New York]]
[[Category:Historians from New York (state)]]
[[Category:American women biographers]]
[[Category:Suffragists from New York (state)]]

Sibyl Wilbur - Revision history

imported>Megalibrarygirl: removed Category:American suffragists; added Category:Suffragists from New York (state) using HotCat