Sister, Sinner

The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson

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Pub Date Mar 18 2025 | Archive Date Apr 18 2025

Description

The dramatic rise, disappearance, and near-fall of Aimee Semple McPherson, America’s most famous woman evangelist.

On a spring day in 1926, Aimee Semple McPherson wandered into the Pacific Ocean and vanished. Weeks later she reappeared in the desert, claiming to have been kidnapped. A national media frenzy and months of investigation ensued. Who was this woman?

America’s most famous evangelist, McPherson was a sophisticated marketer who used spectacle, storytelling, and the newest technology—including her own radio station—to bring God’s message to the masses. Her innovations brought Pentecostalism into the mainstream, paved the way for televangelists, and shaped the future of American Christianity. Her Angelus Temple in Echo Park, Los Angeles, can be called the first megachurch. Her Foursquare Church continues, with more than eight million faithful around the world.

But after her disappearance, as crowds gathered at the water’s edge, people asked: Was McPherson everybody’s saintly sister, or a con-artist sinner? The story of what happened next—sex scandals, religious persecution, legal shenanigans, the seemingly unshakable faith of thousands of followers, and the race to cover it all—runs through the center of Claire Hoffman’s thrilling Sister, Sinner.

A riveting journey into the rise of popular religion in America and life in early Hollywood, and told with the flavor of the period's noir mysteries, this is an unforgettable story of an iconic woman, largely overlooked, who changed the world.

The dramatic rise, disappearance, and near-fall of Aimee Semple McPherson, America’s most famous woman evangelist.

On a spring day in 1926, Aimee Semple McPherson wandered into the Pacific Ocean...


A Note From the Publisher

Claire Hoffman is the author of the memoir Greetings from Utopia Park and a journalist reporting for national magazines on culture, religion, celebrity, business, and more. She was formerly a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, and has an MA in religion from the University of Chicago and an MA in journalism from Columbia University. She serves on the boards of the Columbia School of Journalism, ProPublica, and the Brooklyn Public Library.

Claire Hoffman is the author of the memoir Greetings from Utopia Park and a journalist reporting for national magazines on culture, religion, celebrity, business, and more. She was formerly a staff...


Advance Praise

Sister, Sinner is a wild ride of a biography, part mystery story and part scandal—but also a penetrating examination of the rise of evangelical religion in America. Along the way, Claire Hoffman explains much about popular culture in America today.” —Kai Bird, author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

“Claire Hoffman is a master storyteller. In this riveting tale, she evokes the noir style of its LA setting and revives one of the paragons of twentieth-century Christianity, Aimee Semple McPherson. The result is not only a page-turner about one of the most fascinating and mysterious lives of the era, but also a cautionary tale about the complicated, even dangerous interplay between faith and fame, messengers and the media frenzy that can ensnare them. Hoffman’s Sister, Sinner has all the elements of a suspenseful thriller and brilliant character-study.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of The Black Box: Writing the Race

“From the instant that Claire Hoffman casts Aimee Semple McPherson into the sea in an emerald-green swimsuit, she sets us on an extraordinary journey into the makings of a modern prophet who continues to dominate the American religious landscape. Knowing McPherson's story is essential to understanding the Pentecostal movement. With rigor, grace, and moxie, Hoffman renders its complicated founder in technicolor.” —Eliza Griswold, author of Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church

“Pioneering evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson had moved multitudes by the time women won the right to vote. But her improbable life includes a mystery at its core. And Claire Hoffman has accessed new sources to uncover a story in which megachurch meets film noir.” —Cynthia Carr, author of Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar

Sister, Sinner is a wild ride of a biography, part mystery story and part scandal—but also a penetrating examination of the rise of evangelical religion in America. Along the way, Claire Hoffman...


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ISBN 9780374601713
PRICE $32.00 (USD)
PAGES 384

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Featured Reviews

I received a free digital copy of “ Sister Sinner” via Net Galley. My thanks to Net Galley the publisher and , especially, the author for an excellent book.

“ Sister, Sinner” is one of the best biographies I have read in quite a while. The subject is Aimee Semple McPherson, who captured the headlines of the nation more than a century ago. In clear, Illuminative writing , author Claire Hoffman tells the story of a girl in a small town in Canada who goes from a Salvation Army street - corner proselytizer to become , arguably the most historically significant evangelist in America. Considering Billy Graham, that is saying a lot, I know.
Aimee soon outgrew street corner preaching as her earnest evangelistic preaching gift drew growing crowds that filled Salvation Army storefront assembly spaces.. She and her first husband went to China on a mission for a year. After she suffered a severe sickness and the near death of her child, the family returned to the US, preaching again for the Army. But that was too small a world for Sister Aimee , as she was called.. She wanted to bring her amazing inspirational powers everywhere a car could drive. That led to the family going to the southern states for tent meetings everywhere a tent could be set up. Traveling by car, sleeping by the side of the road, eating fish they caught and donated food, Aimee saw her crowds and her ambitions grow. The roads would eventually lead to California, where she would become world famous. Where she , and the family, including the mother who always supported her, would build an ornate Temple of the Foursquare Church. California where Sister Aimee, clad in a white gown , preached to thousands of devoted believers seeking faith, reassurance of heaven and healings. Ornate staging, soaring choirs, dazzling lighting and Aimee’s sweet voice brought donations flowing into her coffers. Money that constructed radio stations from which her radio sermons went across the nation., that fed the poor, and funded medical help. Money that fed Aimee’s lavish life style that eventually led to scandal and the near destruction of all Aimee built.
In a story that flows and builds like a novel, Ms Hoffman tells of Aimee’s strange disappearance when she was thought to have drowned in the ocean off a California beach and then her being found in the Arizona dessert, a victim, she said, of an underworld kidnapping. The saga filled newspapers across the world ( and bought more adoring worshippers to the Temple). Her fame and wealth grew.
But so did the questions. Was the kidnap fake, a publicity stunt? What about rumors of a love nest at Carmel By The Sea, where, as the satirical song goes, “ The liquor was expensive and the lovin’ was free….” Lawsuits flew like leaves in a thunderstorm, which resulted in a trial whose like was not seen again until the OJ Simpson trial . The trial and its emotional drain on the family. Was great even as the ministry continued to swell and the adoring public flocked to the temple .But Aimee was never quite the same, nor was her devoted mother.
“ Sister, Sister” is a fascinating biography of a unique woman. It is meticulously researched . The author was granted access to Temple records never before opened to outsiders, bringing greater understanding of the Sister, Sinner. Ms Hoffman brings to vivid life a venal , self- serving corrupt Los Angeles courts of the early 1920’s and 1930’s , the headline screams of rival newspapers and the way Aimee used and was used notoriety .
“ Sister, Sinner” is a remarkable biography . It is not often that the blurb “ un- put downable” can be awarded to a biography , but here it applies. Please note that the author, who graduated from divinity school, neither denigrates religion nor the religious fervor of believers.. nor does the author gloss over Aimee’s faults. All are written here, as is her devotion and belief.
Five stars and highly recommended.



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