The Splendor of Florence Scovel Shinn
Why the inspirational author has touched readers for a century
What makes a “serious writer”? In the final book of metaphysical author Florence Scovel Shinn, The Secret Door to Success, venerable New Thought minister Emmet Fox (1886–1951) wrote in his 1940 foreword:
One secret of Shinn’s success was that she was always herself…colloquial, informal, friendly, and humorous. She never sought to be literary, conventional, or impressive. For this reason she appealed to thousands who would not have taken the spiritual message through more conservative and dignified forms, or have been willing to read…at least in the beginning…the standard metaphysical books.
Fox’s comments were as much tribute as eulogy: the illustrator and author Shinn died that year, 1940, at her home in New York City.
I quote from Fox’s elegy with a tinge of hesitancy. There is, I think, something of a backhanded compliment, or even veiled putdown, in his assessment that Shinn’s books are for seekers who might not have taken her teachings on mind-power metaphysics through more “dignified forms.”
A thought habit of today’s spiritual and intellectual culture, and many who seek their place in it, is suspicion of simple ideas and methods. In Shinn’s outlook — always proudly…
