Wallace Delois Wattles

Wallace Delois Wattles (1860 – 1911)

Wallace D. Wattles has helped millions of people achieve financial success. He was born in the U.S. shortly before the Civil War. Received little formal education, and found himself excluded from the world of commerce and wealth

Later in life, he took to studying the various religious beliefs and philosophies of the world, including those of Descartes, Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Swedenborg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others.

According to the 1880 US Federal Census Wallace was living with his parents on a farm in Nunda Township of McHenry County, Illinois and working as a farm labourer. 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
It was through his tireless study and experimentation that he discovered the truth of New Thought principles and put them into practice in his own life. He began to write books outlining these principles.

He practiced the technique of creative visualization, and, as his daughter Florence relates, "He wrote almost constantly. It was then that he formed his mental picture. He saw himself as a successful writer, a personality of power, an advancing man, and he began to work toward the realization of this vision. He lived every page....His life was truly the powerful life."