JAMES ALLEN

AUTHOR

 INSPIRATIONAL THINKING, NEW THOUGHT

THESE pages are devoted to the inspirational and spiritual writings of James Allen (November 28, 1864 – January 24, 1912), a British philosophical writer and pioneer of the self-help movement. 

His best-known work is AS A MAN THINKS.

He was born in Leicester, England. For most of the 1890s, Allen worked as a private secretary and stationer for several British manufacturing firms. In 1893, Allen moved to London and later to South Wales, where he earned a living as a journalist and reporter. In South Wales, he met Lily Louisa Oram (Lily L. Allen), whom he married in 1895.

In 1898, Allen found a profession in which he could express his spiritual and social interests as a writer for the magazine, The Herald of the Golden Age. At this time, Allen entered a creative period, publishing his first of many books, From Poverty to Power (1901). In 1902, Allen began publishing his own spiritual magazine, The Light of Reason, later renamed The Epoch.

In 1903, Allen published his third and most famous book, As a Man Thinketh, loosely based on the biblical passage Proverbs 23:7, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The small work eventually became a worldwide bestseller and brought Allen posthumous fame as one of the pioneering figures of modern inspirational thought. The book's smaller audience allowed Allen to quit his secretarial work and pursue his writing and editing career.

In 1903, the Allen family retired to the town of Ilfracombe, where Allen spent the rest of his life. He continued to publish The Epoch, and Allen published more than one book a year until his death in 1912, producing a total of 19 works.

After his death in 1912, his wife continued to publish The Epoch magazine. Lily Allen summarized her husband's literary mission in the preface to one of his posthumously published manuscripts, Foundation Stones to Happiness and Success, saying:

This is one of the last MSS. written by James Allen. Like all his works it is eminently practical. He never wrote theories, or for the sake of writing, or to add another to his many books; but he wrote when he had a message, and it became a message only when he had lived it out in his own life, and knew that it was good. Thus he wrote facts, which he had proven by practice.

To live out the teaching of this book faithfully in every detail of life will lead one to more than happiness and success — even to Blessedness, Satisfaction and Peace.

LILY L. ALLEN
"Bryngoleu,"
Ilfracombe,
England.

In this good book for all students of Truth, James Allen reveals the Truth about thinking - "Know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free!" - from disharmonious living to Eternal Harmony. This Master of the Mind will show you the basics of working with the mind. An excellent book...

This little volume (the result of meditation and experience) is not intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much-written-upon subject of the power of thought. It is suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that:

"They themselves are makers of themselves"

by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage; that mind is the master-weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness.

AUTHOR - JAMES ALLEN

EDITOR - JÁN MASTER