Wallace Wattles

Wallace Delois Wattles (1860 – 1911) was an American author. A pioneer success writer, he remains personally somewhat obscure, [Butler-Brown, Tom (2004) "50 Success Classics", Nicholas Brealey Publishing, ISBN 978-1857883336, p. 287.] but his writing has been widely quoted and remains in print in the New Thought and self-help movements.

Wattles' best known work is a 1910 book called "The Science of Getting Rich" in which he explained how to become wealthy.

Life and career

Wattles' daughter, Florence A. Wattles, described her father's life in a "Letter" that was published shortly after his death in the New Thought magazine Nautilus, edited by Elizabeth Towne. The Nautilus had previously carried articles by Wattles in almost every issue, and Towne was also Wattles's book publisher. Florence Wattles wrote that her father was born in the United States in 1860, received little formal education, and found himself excluded from the world of commerce and wealth.

According to the 1880 US Federal Census [ [http://www.mcigs.org/1880_FC_Index/1880FC_Wa-Wh.htm 1880 U.S. Census] - McHenry County, Illinois Genealogical Society] Wallace was living with his parents on a farm in Nunda Township of McHenry County, Illinois and working as a farm laborer. His father is listed as a gardener with his mother 'keeping house'. Wallace is listed as being born in Illinois while his parents are listed as born in New York. No other siblings are recorded as living with the family. [ [http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1880US_7127990&HOUSEHOLD_SUB=1&frompage=5 Household record] , 1880 United States Census]

Florence wrote that "he made lots of money, and had good health, except for his extreme frailty" in the three years before he died, in 1911. His death at age 51 was called "untimely" by his daughter; during the previous year he had not only published two books ("The Science of Being Well" and "The Science of Getting Rich"), but he had also run for public office. [Indiana Secretary of State (1910) "Annual Report", [http://books.google.com/books?id=3L5KAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=Wallace+D.+Wattles+-inauthor:%22Wallace+D.+Wattles%22&lr=&as_brr=3#PPP1,M1 p. 251] .]

Ora Ellen Cox, writing on "The Socialist Party in Indiana" in 1916, stated that Wattles lived in or near Kokomo, Indiana near the end of his life. [Cox, Ora Ellen (1916) "The Socialist Party in Indiana", in "Indiana Magazine of History", June 1916, Indiana University, Dept. of History, p. 127.] His daughter Florence identified the town they lived in as Elwood, Indiana.

Christian Socialism

In 1896 in Chicago, Illinois, Wattles attended "a convention of reformers" and met George Davis Herron,Biographical note in cite book | last = Wattles | first = Wallace | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = How to Be a Genius: Or the Science of Being Great | publisher = Health Research | date = September 1996 | location = | pages = pp99-100 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0787309370, including [http://musa23.blogspot.com/2008/06/florence-wattless-letter-to-mrs-towne.html "excerpts from a letter to Elizabeth Towne"] by Florance Wattles, originally published in Nautilus magazine, 1911] a Congregational Church minister and professor of Applied Christianity at Grinnell College cite web| publisher=Grinnell College Libraries| url = http://www.lib.grin.edu/Collections/specialcollections/Manuscripts/findingaids/HerronMss.html |title = George D. Herron Collection, 1891 - 1973 (bulk 1891-1903) | quote = "George Davis Herron (1862-1925) was a Congregational Church minister and professor of Applied Christianity at Grinnell College from 1893-1899 where he attracted nationwide attention for his radical statements. After his resignation in 1899 and his scandalous divorce, he joined the Socialist Party and married Carrie Rand. They moved to Italy where he worked for peace as an emissary of President Woodrow Wilson."] who was then attracting nationwide attention by preaching a form of Christian Socialism. [cite news |title=White and Herron To Parley With Reds; Kansas Editor and Socialist Professor Selected as American Delegates to Prinkipo.| work= The New York Times |url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9804EED61039E13ABC4053DFB4668382609EDE | date = February 08 1919 | accessdate = 2008-08-19]

After meeting Herron, Wattles became a social visionary and began to expound upon what Florence called "the wonderful, social message of Jesus." According to Florence, he at one time had held a position in the Methodist Church, but was ejected for his "heresy". Two of his books ("A New Christ" and "Jesus: The Man and His Work") dealt with Christianity from a Socialist perspective.

In the 1908 election, he ran as a Socialist Party of America candidate in the Eighth Congressional District, [Indiana Secretary of State (1910) "Annual Report", [http://books.google.com/books?id=evNKAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA337&dq=Wallace+D.+Wattles+-inauthor:%22Wallace+D.+Wattles%22&lr=#PPA337,M1 p. 337.] ] ; in 1910 he again ran as a Socialist candidate, for the office of Prosecuting Attorney for the Madison County, Indiana 50th court district. [Indiana Secretary of State (1910) "Annual Report", [http://books.google.com/books?id=3L5KAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=Wallace+D.+Wattles+-inauthor:%22Wallace+D.+Wattles%22&lr=&as_brr=3#PPP1,M1 p. 251] .] He did not win either election. Florence Wattles remained a Socialist after his death, and was a delegate to the Socialist Party National Committee in 1912 and 1915. Cite book |title= The Secret of the Secret: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Runaway Bestseller | author= Karen Kelly| page= p.83| publisher= Thomas Dunne Books | date=1st edition, July 24, 2007 | ISBN 978-0312377908|quote=" [T] he name Florence Wattles appears on lists of delegates to the Socialist Party National Committee in 1912 and 1915."]

New Thought

As a Midwesterner, Wattles travelled to Chicago, where several leading New Thought leaders were located, among them Emma Curtis Hopkins and William Walker Atkinson, and he gave "Sunday night lectures" in Indiana; however, his primary publisher was Massachusetts-based Elizabeth Towne. Cite book |title= The Secret of the Secret: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Runaway Bestseller | author= Karen Kelly| page= p.89| publisher= Thomas Dunne Books | date=1st edition, July 24, 2007 | ISBN 978-0312377908|quote="She [Towne] ran pieces by Wallace Wattles in almost every issue [of The Nautilus] during the early 1900s."]

He studied the writings of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Ralph Waldo Emerson.Sullivan, Dr. Gary (2007) "A Christian Study of Wallace D. Wattle's Science of Getting Rich", Gold Stag Communications, ISBN 978-0615142043, p. 31.] and recommended the study of their books to his readers who wished to understand what he characterized as "the monistic theory of the cosmos."cite book| title= The Science of Being Well | author = Wallace D. Wattles | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=mUgPAAAAIAAJ&dq=wattles&jtp=86 |]

Through his personal study and experimentation Wattles claimed to have discovered the truth of New Thought principles and put them into practice in his own life. He also advocated the then-popular health theories of "The Great Masticator" Horace Fletcher as well as the "No-Breakfast Plan" of Edward Hooker Dewey,cite book| title= The Science of Being Well | author = Wallace D. Wattles | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=mUgPAAAAIAAJ&dq=wattles&jtp=86 | quote= "I would also recommend the writings of Horace Flethcer, and of Edward Dewey."] which he claimed to have appplied to his own life. He wrote books outlining these principles and practices, giving them titles that described their content, such as "Health Through New Thought and Fasting" and "The Science of Being Great". His daughter Florence recalled that "he lived every page" of his books.

A practical author, Wattles encouraged his readers to test his theories on themselves rather than take his word as an authority, and he claimed to have tested his methods on himself and others before publishing them. cite book| title= The Science of Being Well | author = Wallace D. Wattles | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=mUgPAAAAIAAJ&dq=wattles&jtp=86 | quote= "... [T] he methods of thought and action prescribed have been tested by the author in his own case, and in the case of others during twelve years of practice...]

Wattles practiced the technique of creative visualization. In his daughter Florence's words, he "formed a mental picture" or visual image, and then "worked toward the realization of this vision":

Influence

Rhonda Byrne told a "Newsweek" interviewer that her inspiration for creating the 2006 hit film "The Secret" and the subsequent book by the same name, was her exposure to Wattles's "The Science of Getting Rich"cite news| author = Jerry Adler | url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/36603/output/print| title= Decoding The Secret | work= Newsweek | date = 2007-08-21 | accessdate = 2008-08-19] . Byrne's daughter, Hayley, had given her mother a copy of the Wattles book to help her recover from her breakdown. [ cite news| url=http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21062184-5006022,00.html | title= The Secret life of Rhonda | work= Herald Sun] The film itself also references, by re-popularizing the term "The Law of Attraction", a 1908 book by another New Thought author, William Walker Atkinson, titled "Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World."

Bibliography

*"The Constructive Use of Foods" (pamphlet)
*"Health Through New Thought and Fasting"
*"Hellfire Harrison" (his only novel)
*"Jesus: The Man and His Work"
*"Letters to a Woman's Husband" (pamphlet)
*"Making of the Man Who Can"
*"A New Christ"
*"New Science of Living and Healing"
*"The Science of Being Great"
*"Perpetual Youth" (1909, in "The Cavalier"), an early science fiction story. [Bleiler, Everett Franklin and Richard Bleiler, "Science-fiction, the Early Years", Kent State University Press, p. 792.]
*"The Science of Being Well" (Elizabeth Towne, 1910)
*"The Science of Getting Rich" (Elizabeth Towne, 1910)
*"Scientific Marriage"
*"What Is Truth?" (serialized in The Nautilus Magazine, Elizabeth Towne, 1909)
*"Financial Success Through Creative Thought" (published posthumously in 1915)

ee also

* Law of Attraction

References

External links

* [http://wattles.dapatlah.com/bewell.pdf The Science of Being Well]
* [http://wattles.dapatlah.com/begreat.pdf The Science of Being Great]
* [http://wattles.dapatlah.com/getrich.pdf The Science of Getting Rich]