Richard Wood Cone (1839-1924) was born in Westbrook, Connecticut, and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He married Catherine M. Cone (b. Belden) in Lenox, Massachusetts, in 1869. She died in 1894, and in 1900 he married Sarah Louise Cone (b. Pinkham) in Boston, Massachusetts. He began his career in the shoemaking and shoe selling business, but by the 1890s he had become an elocutionist and elocution teacher. He worked as a voice instructor at Leland Powers School of the Spoken Word in Boston before opening his own "scientific voice training" studio. Cone studied Christian Science with Mary Baker Eddy's student Emily M. Meader. He joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 7, 1899, and withdrew his membership in 1923. His wife joined on January 1, 1898. Cone was listed as a practitioner in The Christian Science Journal from 1901 to 1903, and his wife was listed from 1901 to 1906. Cone read aloud Eddy's Message to the Mother Church at the June 1902 Communion Services of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was selected due to his rare ability to project his voice adequately to the many thousands of attendees of the service held at Mechanics Hall in Boston. He authored The Speaking Voice: Its Scientific Basis in Music, published in 1908.

See more letters.