Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister

``Sister'' was one of the best-known North American religious figures and media celebrities between the world wars. At long last, an objective and scholarly biography has been written about this controversial old-time religion revival evangelist. In this sensitive and engaging biography, Blumhofer, a historian (Wheaton Coll.) and editor ( The Christian Century ), depicts not only the woman who mixed piety and pageantry while crossing denominational lines but also the complex social scene of 1930s America. This volume outshines all other McPherson biographies, including Robert Bahr's Least of All Saints ( LJ 5/1/79), which is a speculative and dramatic re-creation, and the poet Mark Epstein's appreciative and noncritical Sister Aimee ( LJ 12/92). An excellent bibliographic essay is included. Appropriate for general readers as well as scholars, this is recommended to public and academic libraries of all sizes.-- Gary P. Gillum, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, Ut.

In this vibrant biography of controversial, charismatic ``Sister'' McPherson (1890-1944), Blumhofer ( Restoring the Faith ) traces the influence of the celebrity preacher on 20th-century American protestantism. Seeking to separate the facts from the cloak of myth surrounding McPherson, the author chronicles the Ontario farm girl's religious formation by her mother, by the ``flamboyant style'' of the Canadian Salvation Army and by her Pentecostal first husband, Robert Semple, who died when Aimee was 19 and pregnant. As the center of her International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, Sister, who married Harold McPherson in 1912, built the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, drew overflow crowds to her assemblies and broadcast from her own radio station. Blumhofer explores the inner loneliness of this divorced mother of a daughter and son (who served as sources for the study). While marital scandals and the shifting economic and societal tides of the 1930s dimmed McPherson's star, today a purported 1.5 million members worldwide follow her vision. Balanced and engrossing, this portrait also examines Sister's early application of modern promotional techniques to a religious endeavor. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)

American Historical Review
"Edith L. Blumhofer is to be congratulated for her detailed, scholarly study. . . Aimee McPherson is an important figure in the history of North American religion and merits attention as a woman who had a major effect on our culture. Yet she has received only modest attention and nothing to match this work, distinguished as it is by a searching and comprehensive scholarship, a rare biography that exists neither to praise nor to bury its subject."

Fides et Historia
"Blumhofer has written the most complete and well-grounded biography of McPherson to date. . . In Blumhofer, Sister has found a scholar who has done her justice. . . Blumhofer has set an admirable standard for all that would follow."

International Bulletin of Missionary Research
"This book is narrative history at its best, and it should appeal to both scholarly and popular audiences."

Provident Book Finder
"The book is readable and provides an excellent introduction to this unique individual."

The Journal of American History
"American survey instructors should consider the book as a way to introduce students to a strong female religious leader; researchers in the field will be impressed by Blumhofer's excellent bibliographical essay."

The Journal of Southern History
"In this engaging, well-researched, and sensitive biography, Edith Blumhofer has succeeded not only in producing a definitive work on her subject but also in opening up new ways of thinking about the popular culture of twentieth-century American Protestantism."