One Simple Idea (43 page)

Additional sources on the history of AA include
New Wine: The Spiritual Roots of the Twelve Step Miracle
by Mel B. (Hazelden, 1991);
Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous
by Ernest Kurtz (Hazelden, 1979, 1991);
AA: The Way It Began
by Bill Pittman (Glen Abbey Books, 1988);
AA’s Godparents: Carl Jung, Emmet Fox, Jack Alexander
by Igor I. Sikorsky Jr. (CompCare Publishers, 1990); and
Ebby: The Man Who Sponsored Bill W
. by Mel B. (Hazelden, 1998). I benefited from the reissued 1939 first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, published by Anonymous Press, and the fourth edition of the “Big Book” published by AA.

Except where noted, Glenn Clark is quoted from his autobiography,
A Man’s Reach
(Macalester Park Publishing Company), originally issued in 1949 and published posthumously with an epilogue by Marcia Brown in 1977. Charles Braden’s
Spirits in Rebellion
(1963, 1987) considers the careers of Clark and F. L. Rawson. Bob Smith’s affinity for Clark and Camps Farthest Out appears in
Dr. Bob and His Library
(1992, 1994, 1998). Clark’s comments on Mussolini and appeasement are from his essay “Let Us Fight Hitler with Power,”
Clear Horizons
, September 1940. Also helpful is J. Gordon Melton’s article on Clark from
Religious Leaders of America
, second edition, edited by Melton (Gale Group, 1999).

Sources on Ernest Holmes include Neal Vahle’s important biography
Open at the Top
(Open View Press, 1991);
Ernest Holmes: His Life Times
by Fenwicke Holmes (Dodd, Mead, 1970);
In His Company: Ernest Holmes Remembered
by Marilyn Leo (M Leo Presents, 2006); Gordon Melton’s biographical article in
Religious Leaders of America
(1999); and
Ernest Holmes: The First Religious Scientist
by James Reid (Science of Mind Publications, undated). For an
overview of Holmes’s religious development, see Arthur Vergara’s series of historical articles published in the Cornerstone column of the 2011 and 2012 issues of
Creative Mind
magazine. On Fenwicke Holmes’s securities scandal see these
New York Times
articles: “Pastor Fights Suit to Stop Stock Sale,” May 3, 1929; “Pastor Fights Ward Move,” May 9, 1929; “Fenwicke Holmes Subpoena Vacated,” May 15, 1929; “Court Finds Pastor Sold Bogus Stock,” July 4, 1929; “Stock Fraud Bureau Finds W. H. Holmes,” July 11, 1929; “Minister’s Tactics in Stock Deal Told,” February 1, 1930; “F. L. Holmes Church Loses 4 Trustees,” February 6, 1930; “Pastor Is Indicted in Sale of Stock,” March 19, 1930; “F. L. Holmes Leaves Church Pending Trial,” March 24, 1930; “F. L. Holmes Case May 28,” May 13, 1930. Also on Fenwicke Holmes see “Pastor Grilled About His Stock Sales to Flock,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, February 1, 1930.
High and Low Financiers
, cited in the chapter, was published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1932. Joseph Campbell’s recollection is from
A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell
by Stephen and Robin Larsen (Doubleday, 1991). For a further perspective on Fenwicke see Jesse G. Jennings’s article “Finding Fenwicke,”
Science of Mind
, August 2008, and Jennings’s introduction to
The Science of Mind: The Definitive Edition
(Tarcher/Penguin, 2010). For Barry Zito’s and Yolanda King’s interest in Ernest Holmes see my interviews with them in, respectively, the September 2003 and April 2005 issues of
Science of Mind
.

The phrases noted from Christian D. Larson’s work appear in
The Ideal Made Real
(Progress Company, 1909), with the exception of “be all that you can be,” which is found in
Your Forces and How to Use Them
(Progress Company, 1910). Sources on Larson’s background and career include the transcript of a 1940 interview/oral history that Larson gave to Maude Allison Lathem—a literary collaborator to Ernest Holmes—as part of an “Extension Course in the Science of Mind” offered by Holmes’s Institute of Religious Science. Also helpful are two highly engaging profiles: “The Living Legacy of Christian D. Larson” by Mark Gilbert,
Science of Mind
, October 2011, and “
The Pathway of Roses
and Christian D. Larson’s Journey in New Thought” by Jessica Hatchigan, which appeared in
Science
of Mind
, April 2005, and was reprinted in a reissue of Larson’s
The Pathway of Roses
the same year by DeVorss. Also see “The Literature of ‘New Thoughters,’ ” by Frances Maule Björkman,
The World’s Work
, January 1910. Progress Company’s involuntary bankruptcy is reported in “Progress Company in Bankruptcy,”
The Inland Printer
(Chicago), September 1911. In her history paper, Lathem reports that “the plant burned to the ground”; in the same oral history Larson described relocating to Los Angeles in August 1911. Also in that interview Larson identified the circulation of his magazine as 250,000—a remarkable figure but one that squares with the overall finances of his company. Sorting through Larson’s trail of copyright registrations and re-registrations entailed reviewing U.S. copyright data, library catalogue entries, publishing trade notices, and various editions of his books. In July 1912,
The Editor
, a literary trade journal, noted that Larson was restarting
Eternal Progress
; that article also reported his essay contest. Fenwicke Holmes discussed Larson’s influence in his
Ernest Holmes
(1970). For further background on Larson’s “Optimist Creed” (originally published as “Promise Yourself”) see my discussion with journalist David Crumm at
http://​www.​readthespirit.​com/​explore/​2012/​6/​28/​christian-​larson-​meet-​the-​ultimate-​pioneering-​optimist.​html
; and the Larson anthology
The Optimist Creed
(Tarcher/Penguin, 2011).

Virtually no biographical literature exists on Roy Herbert Jarrett. My account is assembled from sources including U.S. Census data for 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930; Los Angeles County birth and death records; Indiana state marriage records for 1900 and 1905;
Rochester Chamber of Commerce Directory
(1900–1901); U.S. copyright records and copyright data from various editions of
It Works
and
The Meaning of the Mark
; and Beverly Hills, California, real-estate records and listings. Jarrett published
It Works
independently in 1926 under the Larger Life Library; in about 1948 the book was licensed to the Los Angeles–based publisher Scrivener & Co.; and by 1978 it was published by the California press DeVorss, which retains the license today. These dates are sometimes difficult to pin down, as DeVorss also distributed the work at various points and records
overlap among the various publishers. Sales estimates are based on information that Scrivener and DeVorss periodically provided to the book trade, along with an estimate of more recent sales through BookScan. Jarrett published
The Meaning of the Mark
in 1931 under his Larger Life Library; those rights, too, passed to Scrivener for a time beginning around 1948. Jarrett is reported joining the Jewell F. Stevens Company in the trade journal
Printers’ Ink
, May 14, 1931. For information on the American Multigraph Company I drew upon company brochures and users’ bulletins from 1919; “Multigraph Hundred Pointers Hold Big Convention,”
Office Appliances
, September 1922; “District Meeting for Multigraph,”
Office Appliances
, May 1927; and “Graphic Merger,”
Time
, November 24, 1930, from which Tim Thrift is quoted. Jarrett’s cause of death appears on his death certificate, dated August 28, 1937.

Emile Coué is quoted on will and imagination from his book
Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion
(Malkan Publishing Co., 1922). Coué is quoted in Chicago from “Coué Proves Theory Worth,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 7, 1923 (I altered the article’s amusing use of the phonetic “ze” for “the” in its attempt to capture Coué’s French accent). Additional articles on Coué’s first American tour (he returned briefly in 1924) include “Crowd in Orchestra Hall Cheers Coué as His First Attempt in Chicago to Effect Cure Seems a Success,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, February 7, 1923; “Youth’s Tremors Quieted by Coué,”
New York Times
, January 14, 1923; and “Emile Coué Dead, a Mental Healer,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1926. For an engaging look back at Coué’s Chicago visit see “Emile Coué: Chicago’s Miracle Man” by John R. Schmidt at
www.​wbez.​org/​blog/​john-​r-​schmidt/​2012-​02-​06/​emile-​Coué-​chicagos-​miracle-​man-​95980
. The headline from Marcus Garvey’s
Negro World
appeared September 15, 1923, and the editorial quote is from February 10, 1923—for both references I am indebted to Robert A. Hill’s
Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers
, vol. 10 (University of California Press, 2006). Coué is quoted on his American audiences from
My Method, Including American Impressions
(Doubleday, Page & Company, 1923). Additional sources on Coué include
The Scientific Explanation of Mind Healing
by Albert Amao, Ph.D.
(Quest, 2014);
The Practice of Autosuggestion
by C. Harry Brooks (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1922); “Bypassing the Will: The Automatization of Affirmations” by Delroy L. Paulhus from
The Handbook of Mental Control
edited by Daniel M. Wegner and James W. Pennebaker (Prentice Hall, 1993);
Suggestion and Autosuggestion
by Charles Baudouin (George Allen & Unwin, 1920); “Emile Coué’s Method of ‘Conscious Autosuggestion’ ” by Donald Robertson, 2006-2009, posted at the website of the UK College of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy (
http://​ukhypnosis.​wordpress.​com/​2009/​06/​17/​emile-​coues-​method-​of-​%E2​%80%​9Cconscious-​autosuggestion​%E2​%80​%9D/
); and Huber’s
The American Idea of Success
(1971, 1987).

Frank B. Robinson is quoted on his money-back guarantee from “ ‘Money-Back’ Religion,” UPI, March 30, 1936. Robinson is quoted on his awakening experience from
The Strange Autobiography of Frank B. Robinson
(Psychiana, 1941); also helpful on Robinson’s conversion is
They Have Found a Faith
by Marcus Bach (Bobbs-Merrill, 1946). Robinson is quoted on “the creative God-law” from his lesson plans, with thanks to John Black at
www.​johnblack.​com/​Psychiana/​lessons.​html
. Robinson’s call for “a workable, useable God” is from Bach (1946). Robinson’s plan to help Finland is from “Idaho Publisher Offers Finns Plan to Beat Reds,” UPI, December 3, 1939. On Robinson’s finances and the Holmes-Robinson collaborations, I benefited from a wide range of Psychiana papers, correspondence, and transcripts of the Holmes-Robinson speaking appearances, archived at the University of Idaho Library Special Collections. I have written more extensively about Robinson’s financial affairs in
Occult America
(2009). Marcus Bach’s eulogy is from his “Life and Death of Psychiana,”
Christian Century
, January 2, 1957. Other key works on Robinson include
These Also Believe
by Charles S. Braden (Macmillan, 1949); the pamphlet “Psychiana: The Psychological Religion” by Keith P. Petersen (Latah County Historical Society, 1991); and Bach’s
Strange Sects and Curious Cults
(Dodd, Mead, 1961). Key articles include “Psychiana—The New Religion” by Clifford M. Drury,
The Presbyterian Banner
, August 3, 1933; “Moscow, Idaho, Once Home to a Booming Religion Known as Psychiana”
by Rich Roesler, [Spokane]
Spokesman-Review
, September 3, 1996; “Money-Back Religion,”
Time
, January 17, 1938; “Death of Psychiana,”
Newsweek
, March 24, 1952; “Mail-Order Messiah” by Fred Colvig,
Sunday Oregonian
, December 26, 1937; and “A Visit to the Man Who Talked with God” by Herman Edwards,
Sunday Oregonian
, December 24, 1939.

On the career of the Fillmores, I have benefited from
Charles Fillmore
by Hugh D’Andrade (Harper & Row, 1974); James W. Teener’s doctoral dissertation,
Unity School of Christianity
(University of Chicago Divinity School, 1939);
The Unity Movement
by Neal Vahle; and
The Household of Faith
by James Dillet Freeman (Unity School of Christianity, 1951). Charles Fillmore is quoted on his “chronic pains” from D’Andrade, and on
“Pure Mind Healing”
from Freeman. Sidney Sheldon’s recollections are from an undated interview at
www.​harpercollins.​com/​author/​authorExtra.​aspx?​authorID=​18495&​isbn13=​9780060559342&​displayType=​book​interview
. Marcus Bach is quoted from his book
Report to Protestants
(Bobbs-Merrill, 1948).

Sources on the life of Neville Goddard include Israel Regardie’s profile from
The Romance of Metaphysics
(Aries Press, 1946); Samuel Bousky’s taped recollections (undated) in the collection of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Virginia Beach, Virginia; “Lecturer Presents Bible in New Light” by George L. Beronius,
Los Angeles Times
, July 7, 1951; Margaret Broome’s biographical chapter in her superb anthology of Neville’s work,
The Miracle of Imagination
(Canterbury House, 1990); Neville student Freedom Barry’s recollections at
www.Lifeslight.org
; and Neville’s stage lectures, which he delivered from the early 1930s until his death in 1972. Hundreds of Neville’s lectures are preserved on audio files and in transcripts, both privately held and posted online. Broome has collected several in her valuable anthologies, including the one mentioned above, and
Immortal Man
(DeVorss, 1999) and
The Magic of Imagination
(Canterbury House, 1992). Neville’s story of exiting the army is from a lecture of February 26, 1958. The U.S. Army Human Resources Command provided me with Neville’s existing service records. The only document remaining is his final pay statement, which shows his enlistment from November 1942 to March 1943 with the 490th Armored FA Battalion at
Camp Polk, Louisiana. Records from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration show Neville’s date of enlistment as November 11, 1942. A spokesman for the Army Human Resources Command, Ray Gall, is quoted on the fire from an e-mail of January 11, 2010. The
New Yorker
profile that shows Neville back on the lecture circuit is “A Blue Flame on the Forehead” by Robert M. Coates, September 11, 1943. Jimmie Fidler’s syndicated column is from May 4, 1955. Neville’s account of his initial meeting with Abdullah is from a lecture of October 23, 1967, and his story of returning to Barbados is from a lecture of 1948 (date unknown). Margaret Runyan Castaneda is quoted from her book,
A Magical Journey with Carlos Castaneda
(
iUniverse.com
, 2001); an earlier version appeared in 1996 from Millennia Press (Canada). Her recollections also appear in “My Husband Carlos Castaneda” by Margaret Runyan Castaneda as told to Wanda Sue Parrott,
Fate
magazine, February 1975 (that account has some differences from her book, possibly to protect the privacy of intimates). Journalist Mike Sager also tells Runyan’s story in his entrancing “The Teachings of Don Carlos” from
Scary Monsters and Super Freaks
(Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2003). Bernard Cantin is quoted from his book,
Joseph Murphy se raconte à Bernard Cantin
[
Joseph Murphy Speaks to Bernard Cantin
], published in 1987 by Quebec’s Éditions Un Monde Différent. It is a rare and valuable window into Murphy’s career.