Nineteen-year-old Sadie Zook works in her father's furniture store in their home town of Ephrata, PA. Witty, devout, and supremely competent, Sadie is keeping a secret. Sadie occupies the little spare time she can find with her secret passion -- writing and illustrating her simple and insightful stories about her life in pastoral Lancaster County. While Sadie's writing is mostly thoughtful and even devotional, Sadie's wit shows in some of her tales from her father's store -- sharp delineations of "Englisher" customers whose ignorance of those who choose to live plain lives reveals Sadie's keen talent for description, dialogue, and character development. When twenty-one-year-old Abram Byler discovers Sadie's secret stash of writing, he conceals it, reads it, and is initially horrified and chastises Sadie. As he continues to read, though, he discovers that beneath the clever wit, there is a sweet, nurturing soul revealed in the tender depictions of Sadie's youngest sisters learning to churn butter. As Abram and Sadie become closer, Abram realizes that sometimes humility means using the talents God bestows.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1907 Edition.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1874 Edition.

Exploring the surprising presence of Christian Science in American literature at the turn of the 20th century, L. Ashley Squires reveals the rich and complex connections between religion and literature in American culture. Mary Baker Eddy's Church of Christ, Scientist was one of the fastest growing and most controversial religious movements in the United States, and it is no accident that its influence touched the lives and work of many American writers, including Frances Hodgson Burnett, Willa Cather, Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, and Mark Twain. Squires focuses on personal stories of sickness and healing-whether supportive or deeply critical of Christian Science's recommendations -penned in a moment when the struggle between religion and science framed debates about how the United States was to become a modern nation. As outsized personalities and outlandish rhetoric took to the stage, Squires examines how the poorly understood Christian Science movement contributed to popular narratives about how to heal the nation and advance the cause of human progress.

Exploring the surprising presence of Christian Science in American literature at the turn of the 20th century, L. Ashley Squires reveals the rich and complex connections between religion and literature in American culture. Mary Baker Eddy's Church of Christ, Scientist was one of the fastest growing and most controversial religious movements in the United States, and it is no accident that its influence touched the lives and work of many American writers, including Frances Hodgson Burnett, Willa Cather, Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, and Mark Twain. Squires focuses on personal stories of sickness and healing-whether supportive or deeply critical of Christian Science's recommendations -penned in a moment when the struggle between religion and science framed debates about how the United States was to become a modern nation. As outsized personalities and outlandish rhetoric took to the stage, Squires examines how the poorly understood Christian Science movement contributed to popular narratives about how to heal the nation and advance the cause of human progress.