“Thoughts Are Things”
The striving life and tragic end of New Thought’s forgotten pioneer
The modern writer who most decisively advocated the health-and-wealth-building powers of the mind is an American journalist, essayist, and mystic troubadour whose legacy, while etched across motivational literature, has faded like pencil on a water-logged page: Prentice Mulford (1834–1891).
In a sense, Mulford’s work forged the missing link in the transition of New Thought—an umbrella term for America’s positive-mind philosophies — from a predominantly health-based outlook, often called “mind cure,” into an all-purpose metaphysical system for happiness and success.
Indeed, Mulford’s tracts of the late 1880s and early 1890s mark the critical moment when New Thought’s abstruse, 19th century tone fell away; from Mulford’s writing emerged a remarkably modern and appealing vernacular, which won a vastly expanded, enduring audience for mind-power metaphysics — if not for the author himself.
In some regards, Mulford was the most influential of all early self-improvement writers. His personal journey itself proved an exercise in repeat transformations — and, toward its end, the pioneering writer-seeker struggled to live by the principles whose modern form he devised.
