---Mrs. Adoniram Judson [Emily C.][3][5][6] The novel is presented like a diary by its main protagonist, Mary Cabot, who mourns the death of her brother Royal.

In contrast with traditions of Calvinism, Phelps's version of heaven is corporeal where the dead have "spiritual bodies", live in houses, raise families, and participate in various activities.

[3] Phelps began writing The Gates Ajar in the final year of the American Civil War, inspired in part by the death of her mother, stepmother, and her fiancé who was killed at the Battle of Antietam.

"[10] Emily Dickinson, according to scholar Barton Levi St. Armand, was among those who believed in a similar vision of the afterlife and found the book helpful in organizing those thoughts.

"[12] The Gates Ajar, according to Helen Sootin Smith, incorporates at least four literary elements: "sermon, diary, sentimental domestic plot, and allegory."

The rude, willful Mary in the opening chapters represents that of unregenerate man, who has succumbed to the temptations of 'the world, the flesh, and the devil.'.

[14]The Gates Ajar was successful and established Phelps's career and impressed upon the author her ability to influence culture and gave her the confidence to pursue women's rights.

[18] Its popularity has been described as fueled by Americans seeking the help of religion after the war concluded, but the book was also a success in Britain and translated in at least four different languages.

[19][20] In 1877, The New York Times noted that "there are persons to whom The Gates Ajar is a standard to which they refer books they admire intensely, and there are others who use the same volume as a measure of their contempt for trashy, overstrained 'feminine' literature.

"[3] Within two years an extended analysis appeared under the authorship of "A Dean", who judged the work: a second-rate sensational novel, professedly of a religious character, but betraying so much positive error, and treating serious subjects in such a flippant, unhallowed strain, that no small amount of Christian charity is required to avoid the conclusion, that 'an enemy hath done this!'

The Gates Ajar , in familiar but simple and undemanding Christian terms, reassured those who had come to doubt the immortality of the soul and who found cold comfort in their minister's vague assertions that life after death was a reality.

[25][26] The book inspired parodies and knock-offs, including a reissue of George Wood's 1858 Future Life renamed as The Gates Wide Open.

[28] Frederick Nussbaumer, formerly of London's Royal Botanic Gardens, was hired by Como Park in St. Paul Minnesota, where in 1894 he installed the elegant Gates Ajar floral staircase.

[33] In 1959, the actor and announcer Don Wilson appeared as a flim-flam preacher in the episode, "Gates Ajar Morgan", on the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews.

[42] In September 1881 a stunned nation responded to the assassination of United States President James A. Garfield with ornate floral displays and long lines of mourners.

"[43] A reporter from Akron, Ohio commented on the "beautiful floral offerings" as the President lay in state: "Next is a representation of the gates of Heaven, one of which is ajar.