American attorney, author, occultist, and a central figure of the New Thought movement. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Atkinson practiced law in Pennsylvania before suffering a physical and mental breakdown that led him to the principles of New Thought. He relocated to Chicago, where he reinvented himself as a prolific writer and editor.

As editor of the magazine New Thought, Atkinson wrote over one hundred books under various pseudonyms including Yogi Ramacharaka and Theron Q. Dumont. He is widely credited with popularizing the term “Law of Attraction,” and his writings on the power of the mind laid the foundation for a century of self-help literature.

British philosophical writer and a pioneer of the self-help genre. Born in Leicester, England, Allen was forced into factory work at a young age following his father’s business failure and death. He was largely self-taught, immersing himself in literature and philosophy throughout his life.

His 1903 masterpiece As a Man Thinketh distilled the principle that thought shapes character and circumstance into prose of remarkable brevity and power. The work has remained in continuous print for over a century. Allen authored nineteen books and edited the magazine The Light of Reason before his death at the age of forty-eight.

American New Thought author best known for his writings on wealth and the principles of success. Born in Illinois to a farming family, Wattles grew up in poverty before discovering the New Thought movement, which transformed his outlook and launched his writing career.

His 1910 work The Science of Getting Rich argued that the creation of wealth follows scientific principles as reliable as the laws of physics. The book gained renewed fame as the direct inspiration for Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret. Wattles is known for his practical, no-nonsense style and his insistence on the power of purposeful thought.

American illustrator, New Thought lecturer, and author. Born in Camden, New Jersey, Shinn studied art at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women before establishing herself as a magazine illustrator in New York City.

Her 1925 self-published classic The Game of Life and How to Play It presented life as a game governed by spiritual laws, with the spoken word as the player’s most powerful tool. Rich in vivid, everyday examples drawn from her lectures, the book pioneered the practice of affirmation and remains one of the most widely read works in New Thought literature. Shinn is regarded as the foremost female author of the movement.

American businessman and New Thought author. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Haanel built a successful career in business, founding several companies before turning his practical experience into a systematic philosophy of mental power and achievement.

His The Master Key System, first distributed in 1912 as a twenty-four-week correspondence course, is widely considered the most structured and methodical presentation of New Thought principles ever written. The work gained legendary status through the popular claim that Bill Gates read it during his time at Harvard and drew inspiration from its teachings.