The Art of Writing and Speaking the English Language – Sherwin Cody

“Do You Make These Mistakes in English?”

Sherwin Cody was an American writer and entrepreneur who developed a long-running home-study course in speaking and writing with an advertisement with this title.

A critic of traditional English education, Cody advocated colloquial style and grammar. He asked:

• What is the reason so many of us are deficient in the use of English and find our careers stunted in consequence?
• Why is it some cannot spell correctly and others cannot punctuate?
• Why do so many find themselves at a loss for words to express their meaning adequately?

The reason for the deficiency is clear:

Most persons do not write or speak good English simply because they never formed the habit of doing so.

Most persons use only common words — colorless, flat, ordinary. Their speech and their letters are lifeless, monotonous, humdrum.

If there is a subject of really universal interest and utility, it is the art of writing and speaking one’s own language effectively.

It is the basis of culture, as we all know; but it is infinitely more than that: it is the basis of business. No salesman can sell anything unless he can explain the merits of his goods in effective English (among our people), or can write an advertisement equally effective, or present his ideas, and the facts, in a letter.

The way we talk, and write letters, largely determines our success in life.

Now it is well for us to face at once the counter-statement that the most ignorant and uncultivated men often succeed best in business, and that misspelled, ungrammatical advertisements have brought in millions of dollars.

As far as spelling is concerned, we know that some of the masters of literature have been atrocious spellers and many suppose that when one can sin in such company, sinning is, as we might say, a “beauty spot”, a defect in which we can even take pride.

There is a general belief that while bad air may be a positive evil influence, incorrect use of language is at most no more than a negative evil: that while it may be a good thing to be correct, no special harm is involved in being incorrect.

The ordinary person conceives of good use of language as an accomplishment to be learned from books, a prim system of genteel manners to be put on when occasion demands, a sort of superficial education in the correct thing, or, as the boys would say, “the proper caper.” In this, however, he is mistaken.

Language which expresses the thought with strict logical accuracy is correct language. Language which is sufficiently rich in its resources to express thought fully is effective language.

If the writer or speaker has a sufficient stock of words and forms at his disposal, he has only to use them in a strictly logical way and with sufficient fullness to be both correct and effective.

The unfortunate thing is that teachers of language have failed to go to the root of the trouble, and enormous effort has counted for nothing, and besides has led to discouragement.

The right kind of language-teaching will give us power, a kind of eloquence, a skill in the use of words. That help us to write advertisements that pull business, write letters that win customers, and speak in effective ways to sell goods.

(From the Introduction)

Those who take advantage of this study gain something so priceless that it cannot be measured in terms of money.

They gain a facility in speech that marks them as educated people in whatever society they find themselves.

They gain the self-confidence and self-respect which this ability inspires.

This is a classic reference that belongs on every writer’s shelf.

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The Train on the Girl: Mystery Writing Prompts – A 90-Day Challenge

A Workbook of Mystery Writing Prompts

Reason this book exists:

To improve your writing by practicing it every day for 90 days, to stretch your imagination with writing prompts and develop your capacity for creating mystery stories.

How this book is built:

On the left side, you have a quote by a famous (or infamous) author. On the right, you have a blank, ruled page to write on.

Instructions:

1. Read the quote.
2. Pull an inspired idea from your imagination and write it down in one sentence. Refined, this becomes your Hook.
3. Write one paragraph about that idea – this becomes your Elevator Pitch.
4. If you like that pitch, then write one page about that idea – this becomes your Synopsis.
5. And if you’re now fascinated by that idea, then stop and have a cover made, then proceed to write the story.
6. Otherwise, keep this up for 90 days.

You’ll soon find you’ve developed the ability and habit of creating mystery stories out of thin air. By the end you may also find that you now have 90 possible stories you can bring to life.

You’re welcome.

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The Craft of Fiction – Percy Lubbock

The Classic Critique of Fiction So Good It Was Scapegoated

“No more substantial or more charming volume of criticism has been published in our time. To say that this is the best book on the subject is probably true but it is more to the point to say that it is the only one.” -Times Literary Supplement

The reigning masterpiece on the creation and criticism of fiction, The Craft of Fiction is a seminal important work by essayist, and literary critic Percy Lubbock. Lubbock’s outlook in this publication is an obvious extension to that of Henry James and he works to illustrate the craft by referencing many important and classic novels including Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Henry James’ The Ambassadors. The Craft of Fiction is highly recommended for those who enjoy literary criticism works and also for those who are interested in the key writings of Percy Lubbock.

The Craft of Fiction has helped transform generations of aspiring writers into masterful writers — and will continue to do so for many years to come.

About the Author

Percy Lubbock (1879-1965) was an English man of letters, known as an essayist, critic and biographer. He was educated at Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 1922, with his memoir of childhood summer holidays at Earlham Hall in Norfolk. He became an émigré, and lived in Gli Scafari on the Gulf of Spezia. Towards the end of his life he went blind. Remarkably well-placed socially, his intellectual connections included E. M. Forster, a Cambridge contemporary, Edith Wharton (a member of her Inner Circle from about 1906), Howard Sturgis and Bernard Berenson. He reviewed, anonymously in the columns of the Times Literary Supplement, significant modern novels including Forster’s Howard’s End. His 1921 book The Craft of Fiction (‘the official textbook of the Modernist aesthetics of indirection’) became a straw man for writers including Virginia Woolf and Graham Greene, who disagreed with his rather formalist view of the novel.

Every serious student of the writing craft (meaning: every writer) needs a copy on his shelves for ready reference.

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How to Write a Novel: A Practical Guide to the Art of Fiction

How To Write A Novel Still Makes Authors Stumble.

A Hundred Year-old Book Answers the Same Questions Struggling Authors Have Now

This little book is one which so well explains itself that no introductory word is needed; and I only venture to intrude a sentence or two here with a view to explain the style in which I have conveyed my ideas. I desired to be plain and practical, and therefore chose the direct and epistolary form as being most suitable for the purpose in hand.

I address myself to the man or woman of talent—those people who have writing ability, but who need instruction in the manipulation of characters, the formation of plots, and a host of other points with which I shall deal hereafter.

As to what is teachable, and not teachable, in writing novels, perhaps I may be permitted to use a close analogy. Style, per se, is absolutely unteachable simply because it is the man himself; you cannot teach personality.

Can Dickens, Thackeray, and George Meredith be reduced to an academic schedule? Never. Every soul of man is an individual entity and cannot be reproduced.

But although style is incommunicable, the writing of easy, graceful English can be taught in any class-room—that is to say, the structure of sentences and paragraphs, the logical sequence of thought, and the secret of forceful expression are capable of exact scientific treatment.

In like manner, although no school could turn out novelists to order—a supply of Stevensons annually, and a brace of Hardys every two years—there is yet enough common material in all art- work to be mapped out in a course of lessons.

I shall show that the two great requisites of novel-writing are

(1) a good story to tell, and

(2) ability to tell it effectively.

Briefly stated, my position is this: no teaching can produce “good stories to tell,” but it can increase the power of “the telling,” and change it from crude and ineffective methods to those which reach the apex of developed art.

Of course there are dangers to be avoided, and the chief of them is that mechanical correctness, “so praiseworthy and so intolerable,” as Lowell says in his essay on Lessing. But this need not be an insurmountable difficulty. A truly educated man never labours to speak correctly; being educated, grammatical language follows as a necessary consequence.

The same is true of the artist: when he has learned the secrets of literature, he puts away all thoughts of rule and law—nay, in time, his very ideas assume artistic form.

– – – –

Some headings:

* A Model Lesson in Novel-Writing
* The Teachable and the Unteachable
* Where do Novelists get their Stories from?
* Is there a Deeper Question?
* What about the Newspapers?
* Formation of the Plot
* The Agonies and Joys of “Plot-Construction”
* Care in the Use of Actual Events
* The Natural History of a Plot
* Sir Walter Besant on the Evolution of a Plot
* Plot-Formation in Earnest
* Characters first: Plot afterwards
* The Natural Background
* The Chief Character
* How to Portray Character
* Methods of Characterization
* The Trick of “Idiosyncrasies”
* Narrative Art
* Movement
* Aids to Description: The Point of View
* Selecting the Main Features
* Description by Suggestion
* Facts to Remember
* Color: Local and Otherwise
* What about Dialect?
* On Dialogue
* Points in Conversation
* “Atmosphere”
* Topography and Geography
* Scientific Facts
* Grammar
* Quick and Slow
* How many Words a Day?
* Curious Methods
* Practice the Short Story
* Short Story Writers on their Art
* The Truth about Success (Minor Conditions of Success)
* And more including “The Philosophy of Composition” by Edgar Allan Poe

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On the Art of Writing – How to Murder Your Darlings

How to Murder Your Darlings as a Writer, From The Source

“The art of writing is a living business,”

Declares Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in the Preface to this classic. “Literature is not a mere science, to be studied; but an art, to be practiced. Great as is our own literature, we must consider it as a legacy to be improved . . . if we persist in striving to write well, we can easily resign to other nations all the secondary fame.”

Also the source of the famous quote used by editors, “Murder your darlings.”

Renowned as a critic, teacher, and educational reformer, Quiller-Couch delivered a series of lectures at the University of Cambridge in 1913-14. His subjects–the artistic and vital nature of language as well as the skills needed to convey and receive the written word–remain as timeless as his advice. This book contains the eminent scholar’s remarks from those lectures on the practice of writing, the difference between verse and prose, the use of jargon, the history of English literature, the ways in which English literature is taught at the university, and the importance of style. The principles and practical guidelines he sets forth in this volume offer aspiring writers an enduring source of guidance.

Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (21 November 1863 – 12 May 1944) was a British writer who often published under the pen name of Q. A novelist and poet who was also a Professor of English, he helped to form the literary tastes of generations of literary students and scholars who came after him. He is primarily remembered for the monumental Oxford Book Of English Verse 1250–1900 (later extended to 1918), and for his literary criticism.

Every writer should have this book as reference and inspiration.

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How to Write a Play – Letters from Top Playwrights

There is No Better Way To Learn to Write a Play Than From Successful Playwrights.

The problem is that successful playwrights are not always the best teachers. These letters in themselves are not a course of study, but rather consider these missives to serve as muses that sit on your shoulder and opine.

There are no workable rules for play-writing to be found here—nor, indeed, any particular light of any kind on the subject, so the letters may be approached with a mind arranged for enjoyment.

Any one sufficiently inexperienced to consult books in order to find out how to write a play will certainly undergo a severe touch of confusion in this case, for four of the letter-writers confess quite frankly that they do not know—two of these thereupon proceeding to tell us, thus forcibly illustrating their first statement.

One author exclaims, “Have instinct!”—another, “Have genius!” Where these two necessaries are to be obtained is not revealed. Equally discouraging is the Dumas declaration that “Some from birth know how to write a play and the others do not and never will.” That would have killed off a lot of us—if we had seen it in time.

The foregoing indicates to some extent the buffeting about which a searcher for practical advice on play-writing may find himself subject in this collection of letters. He had better go for mere instruction to those of a lower order of intellect, whose imaginative or creative faculties do not monopolize their entire mental area.

A play or drama is not a simple and straight-told story; it is a device—an invention—a carefully adjusted series of more or less ingenious traps, independent yet inter-dependent, and so arranged that while yet trapping they carry forward the plot or theme without a break.

These traps of scene, of situation, of climax, of acts and tableaux or of whatever they are, require to be set and adjusted with the utmost nicety and skill so that they will spring at the precise instant and in the precise manner to seize and hold the admiration—sympathy—interest—or whatever they may be intended to capture, of an audience.

Their construction and adjustment—once one of the simplest—is now of necessity most complicated and intricate. They must operate precisely and effectively, otherwise the play—no matter how admirable its basic idea—no matter how well the author knows life and humanity, will fail of its appeal and be worthless—for a play is worthless that is unable to provide itself with people to play to.

But audiences are a most undependable and unusual species of game. From time immemorial their tastes, requirements, habits, appetites, sentiments and general characteristics have undergone constant change and modification; and thus continues without pause to the present day. The dramatic trap that would work like a charm not long ago may not work at all to-day; the successful trap of to-day may be useless junk tomorrow.

As to the talented authors of these letters, they know excellently well—every one of them—how to write a play—or did while still alive—even tho some of them see fit to deny it; but they cannot tell us how to do it for the very good reason that it cannot be told.

Their charming efforts to find a way out when cornered by such an inquiry as appears to have been made to them are surely worth all their trouble and annoyance—not to speak of their highly probable exasperation.

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Not That It Matters – A. A. Milne – Writing Essays

An Eclectic Essay Collection from Winnie-the-Pooh’s Father. (With Some on Writing…)

Not That It Matters is a collection of essays that a appeared in a variety of newspapers at the beginning of the last century, sort of an upper class, mild mannered Dave Barry of the 20’s. Many were charming and generally humorous in gentle, whimsical way, as you might expect from the author of Winnie the Pooh. Some were a bit dated such as the essay about the perfect walking stick or the one about pipe smoking and there is some use of some now un-politically correct language; but others felt just as current now as they must have been then, such as the essay titled “Intellectual Snobbery” about the shame one feels about reading popular fiction as opposed to the classics or the one titled “My Library”, about the eternal quandary of how to best arrange one’s books. These essays are probably best enjoyed a few at a time over days or weeks and not all in one go.

(From Goodreads)

About the Author

A. A. Milne was an English novelist and playwright born in 1882. A student of H. G. Wells during public school, Milne went on to study mathematics in Cambridge. During his time there, Milne frequently contributed to the college s student magazine, Granta, and was so successful that he was offered a job at the British humour magazine Punch. Milne s son, Christopher Robin, was born in 1920. After writing a poem for him entitled Teddy Bear, Milne began publishing children s stories about Christopher Robin and his stuffed animals, including his bear, Winnie-the-Pooh. Milne s children s books, Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, have since become beloved classics that have been adapted into the famous Disney franchise.

For writers, be sure to read the first and last essays. Droll, informative, and enlightening.

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Short Story Writing: A Practical Treatise on the Art of the Short Story

A practical treatise on the art of the short story, designed to present concretely the rules of the art. It is a working manual, not a collection of untried theories. It tells how to write a story with reference to the requirements of contemporary editors.

“Both an interesting and useful book. While it is concerned with the special application of rhetorical principles to a particular department of literary art, it carries a general application that all literary workers may profit by, as in its chapters on Titles, Style, and the Labor of Authorship. Perusal of it is likely also to promote among readers a desirable repugnance to the inferior stuff which wastes time that might be better employed. Mr. Barrett’s purpose is in the interest of novices who would learn the art of telling a short story as it should be told. His precepts are pointed with numerous critiques upon specimens of poor work, and enriched by references to various books and articles on the subject which amplify and re-enforce his presentation of principles and rules.” -Outlook

“Based upon deductions made by the author in the course of work as student, writer and critic of short stories. Specially brings out the requirements of contemporary editors. Principles laid down are illustrated by extracts from actual short stories, both good and bad.” -The Book News Monthly

“If the countless thousands of would-be authors who are writing or who contemplate writing a short story would diligently study ‘Short Story Writing,’ by Charles Raymond Barrett, Ph.B., many an over-worked editor would find his burdens lightened. For the would-be author will realize, after he has read Mr. Barrett’s book, that to write a successful short story is an achievement beyond the power of ninety-nine men out of a hundred. The book is no mere presentation of theories on the part of the author. It is the result of careful analysis of the great short stories of the English language. Not only does the author show the inherent qualities of greatness which some of these stories possess, he also gives extracts from various amateur and unsuccessful stories, by which he shows plainly what a writer of short stories must not do. This treatment is one of the most helpful characteristics of his book. Mr. Barrett has treated the subject with admirable fullness….Readers of short stories as well as would-be authors will find the book interesting.” -Public Opinion

“Aims to give directions on all phases of the subject.” -Printer’s Ink

“Competent young writers who seriously desire to do something worthwhile along the line of hte short story will do well to read Charles Raymond Barrett’s ‘Short Story Writing.’ The author makes some very wise and remarkably practical suggestions. He defines the curious limitations and canons of this peculiar art form, the short story, in a clear and discriminating way. He classifies short stories, speaks helpfully of the selection of plots, talks judiciously of good and bad titles, of the use of facts, of character painting, of methods of narration, and of style. In the last chapter he gives sound advice on the quest of a market. Neither Mr. Barrett nor anyone else could turn the average man or woman into a successful short story writer, but Mr. Barrett can give a lot of good pointers.” -The Chautauquan

“A volume of definition, criticism and instruction. Sensible and based upon careful and intelligent study. Young writers will do wisely to read it and heed it.” -Congregationalist

“The book can hardly fail to be of much practical assistance to the novice in short-story writing.” -Review of Reviews

**

This book is an attempt to put into definite form the principles observed by the masters of the short story in the practice of their art. It is the result of a careful study of their work, of some indifferent attempts to imitate them, and of the critical examination of several thousands of short stories written by amateurs. It is designed to be of practical assistance to the novice in short story writing, from the moment the tale is dimly conceived until it is completed and ready for the editor’s judgment.

The rules and principles here presented embody not what I conceive to be right, but what the great masters of the short story have thought to be right, and what they have proved to be at least successful. I speak only as a delver into the secrets of other men; and if I seem arrogant, it is due to the influence of the company I keep. My deductions are made not only from the artifices and triumphs of the successful, but from the struggles and failures of the unfortunate as well; and I have endeavored to make clear both the philosophy and the application of all the principles so deduced. Though in theory these rules are obligatory on all who essay the short story, they are frequently and knowingly evaded or violated by the masters of the art, whose genius is great enough to excuse their disregard of the conventions, or whose skill is sufficient to smooth over their technical lapses; but for the novice the only safe course is a careful observance of all conventions.

To the aspiring writer this book may seem to be merely a catalogue of “Don’ts”, the gist of which is, “Don’t write”; but that is to misread me. Short story writing is not easy, and I cannot make it so, even if I would; but it is far from my purpose to discourage any person who feels the Heaven-sent call to write, and who has the will and ability to respond to it. But that call is but a summons to labor—and to labor the severest and most persistent. To one who comes to it but half-heartedly, illy prepared, shirking its requirements, I can predict certain failure; but to the earnest, serious, conscientious worker, I would say a word of hope. The promotion from the rank of amateur to the dignity of authorship may be long in coming, but it will come at last. Fame, like all else that this world has to give, depends largely upon downright hard work; and he who has the courage to strive in the face of disappointments will achieve success in the end.

(From the Preface)

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Winning Your Infinite Freedom – Complete Series 2006-2011

How do you find more Freedom in your life?

It’s not that difficult, but you can’t expect politics or government to really help you with it.

Because it’s an ability you already have. Really.

This book is a collection of blog essays from 2006-2011, following one person’s work to re-discover the route anyone could take in order to get the exact amount of real Freedom they want in their life.

Sure, it takes some work. But at least one of the many paths that go there is laid out. With all the links to materials and programs so you can check it all out for yourself.

In these 5 years of study, Dr. Robert C. Worstell has spent his time and energy to uncover the secrets people have been looking for most of their lives:

• How to get real control over your own life – or escape control of others.
• Why needing the approval of others is just another trap – and what you can do about it today.
  Escaping the security traps which other people are setting for you.
• Finding how you can join the group of successful, happy people who are that way regardless of the government or anyone else.
• How to regain any ability you want – by releasing your own native talents.

This isn’t some sort of special or secret practice you have to follow. These linked studies have been around since the 50’s or earlier – proven effective by university studies and so on.

The books mentioned have been bestsellers and continue to sell after their authors were long gone – so their effectiveness is well known. (Plus, they are all guaranteed by their sellers – so you have nothing to lose by reading them.)

If you really want more freedom in your life, you’ll want to check out this book and follow the links.

Yes, it’s a long read. But you can see the 5 years of study all in one book – and get through it anyway you want.

Your freedom is more important than probably anything else. And Happiness will follow, as well as your own abundant lifestyle and improved health.

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The Story of Henry Ford with Rose Wilder Lane, Samuel Crowther

FEW PEOPLE have had the transformative success as Henry Ford of Dearborn Michigan, USA.

While his life-story transformed the nation and the world, the effects on its author are less understood.

The purpose of this book is to explore his story as an additional study to Napoleon Hill’s bestselling “Think and Grow Rich.” In Hill’s book, few individuals in it have more anecdotes used as examples than Ford – excepting Thomas Edison himself (who gave Ford an early boost in one of his companies.)

In most days, people are challenged by their environment. They can rise to the challenge, or succumb to it. A rare few among them can see opportunity and seize it – creating a new world from a unique and unstoppable vision they hold.

That Hill interviewed Ford as part of the 500 industry leaders Andrew Carnegie introduced him to, that Ford was more influential than many of the others on young Hill, and that Ford left behind a record of his life so others could follow – these brought about this book for you to now read.

Ford had many biographies written about him. Selected here are his own, and one he told to Rose Wilder Lane.  In this way, we know that the reported facts are close to reality.

The use of biographies in general are to allow an individual to compare their own life with that of someone else – usually someone admired, or outstanding – in order to find points to improve in your own life.

With Ford, we can also gain more insight into his philosophy of achievement, and how this affected Hill in his own studies.

Even today, Ford’s ideals have a great deal to say about how we can approach our own life.

It is up to us how we want to use these inspirational and motivational points.

And now, it’s over to you.

(From the Forward)

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The Will to Believe by William James

How and What You Believe is Your Choice, and Your Success

I have long defended to my own students the lawfulness of voluntarily adopted faith; but as soon as they have got well imbued with the logical spirit, they have as a rule refused to admit my contention to be lawful philosophically, even though in point of fact they were personally all the time chock-full of some faith or other themselves.

I am all the while, however, so profoundly convinced that my own position is correct, that your invitation has seemed to me a good occasion to make my statements more clear. Perhaps your minds will be more open than those with which I have hitherto had to deal.

I will be as little technical as I can, though I must begin by setting up some technical distinctions that will help us in the end.

(From the Forward)

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The Will to Believe – And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy

How What You Believe and Your Faith Create Your World

Something is always mere fact and givenness; and there may be in the whole universe no one point of view extant from which this would not be found to be the case. “Reason,” as a gifted writer says, “is  but one item in the mystery; and behind the proudest consciousness that ever reigned, reason and wonder blushed face to face. The inevitable stales, while doubt and hope are sisters. Not unfortunately the universe is wild,—game-flavored as a hawk’s wing. Nature is miracle all; the same returns not save to bring the different. The slow round of the engraver’s lathe gains but the breadth of a hair, but the difference is distributed back over the whole curve, never an instant true,—ever not quite.”

The first four essays are largely concerned with defending the legitimacy of religious faith. To some rationalizing readers such advocacy will seem a sad misuse of one’s professional position. Mankind, they will say, is only too prone to follow faith unreasoningly, and needs no preaching nor encouragement in that direction. I quite agree that what mankind at large most lacks is criticism and caution, not faith. Its cardinal weakness is to let belief follow recklessly upon lively conception, especially when the conception has instinctive liking at its back. I admit, then, that were I addressing the Salvation Army or a miscellaneous popular crowd it would be a misuse of opportunity to preach the liberty of believing as I have in these pages preached it. What such audiences most need is that their faiths should be broken up and ventilated, that the northwest wind of science should get into them and blow their sickliness and barbarism away.

After all, though, you will say, Why such an ado about a matter concerning which, however we may theoretically differ, we all practically agree? In this age of toleration, no scientist will ever try actively to interfere with our religious faith, provided we enjoy it quietly with our friends and do not make a public nuisance of it in the market-place. But it is just on this matter of the market-place that I think the utility of such essays as mine may turn. If  religious hypotheses about the universe be in order at all, then the active faiths of individuals in them, freely expressing themselves in life, are the experimental tests by which they are verified, and the only means by which their truth or falsehood can be wrought out. The truest scientific hypothesis is that which, as we say, ‘works’ best; and it can be no otherwise with religious hypotheses.

Religious history proves that one hypothesis after another has worked ill, has crumbled at contact with a widening knowledge of the world, and has lapsed from the minds of men. Some articles of faith, however, have maintained themselves through every vicissitude, and possess even more vitality to-day than ever before: it is for the ‘science of religions’ to tell us just which hypotheses these are. Meanwhile the freest competition of the various faiths with one another, and their openest application to life by their several champions, are the most favorable conditions under which the survival of the fittest can proceed.

They ought therefore not to lie hid each under its bushel, indulged-in quietly with friends. They ought to live in publicity, vying with each other; and it seems to me that (the régime of tolerance once granted, and a fair field shown) the scientist has nothing to fear for his own interests from the liveliest possible state of fermentation in the religious world of his time. Those faiths will best stand the test which adopt also his hypotheses, and make them integral elements of their own. He should welcome therefore every species of religious agitation and discussion, so long as he is willing to allow that some religious hypothesis may be  true.

(From the Preface.)

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What Jesus Really Said by Dr. Robert C. Worstell

This started out from the need for a clear guidebook to Gospel.

I needed a study guide to clear out all interpretations of Jesus’ actual words – as near as we can determine from the remaining fragments discovered only in this last century.

The largest problem in studying this great philosopher’s work is separating what was actually said from all the interpretations which came later. It didn’t help that Jesus or Nazareth was never a writer. All these stories were passed down for several generations before ever committed to parchment.

We are in luck in this, is that there are certain sayings attributed to Jesus which have survived in remarkably similar form. So the studies began at this point – commonalities of attributed sayings.

First, I took the “Q” Gospel as one source, since this was seen as a single (if missing) source which was common to our New Testament authors. This lacks all the narratives and details added later, and contains basically the simple teachings Jesus left.

Second source along this line was found to be the Gospel of Thomas, as recently uncovered in the Nag Hammurabi files. This, too, is simply the sayings of Jesus – without narratives or added detail.
Why would I want to study these? Because by studying his exact words, as far as we can determine, I would be able to uncover more truth from these words and not have to weed out other interpretations.
Rather, I would be able to study these interpretations for what they were – and so see if I agreed or disagreed with those ideas. The first point was to boil what has been saved down to its essence.
And so, in the oldest traditions, I could see with my own insight.

Now I publish this for you and your use.

Good Hunting!

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TNT: It Rocks the Earth by Claude M. Bristol – Success

How This Author’s Success Saved His Business With “Mind Stuff.”

It was that period approaching the end of the second year of the great economic depression when hopefulness had almost vanished from business life, and everyone was overwhelmed with fear, that Mr. Claude M. Bristol, my close business associate of many years standing, astounded me by relating a most amazing experience in having found “that something” for which he had been searching many years.

As he revealed the truths which had come to him I, at first, was skeptical, but as he took me along with him, I, too, began to see the light which only stimulated my ambition for further knowledge of the theme of how to live powerfully by adopting that science which relates to the development of the human personality.

I realized that there was a great change for good coming over myself, and sensed the possibilities of what could be done if the members of our own organization put the author’s teachings into practice, and forthwith arrangements were made for him to talk to our entire staff. The immediate response of every member of our organization in demanding a copy — followed by the most remarkable transformation of individuals and organization, brought home the positive conviction to me that the message contained in his theme was exactly what the world most needed, and that a great service could be rendered by publishing same for general distribution.

In “T.N.T. — It Rocks the Earth,” you are told exactly how to acquire a wonderful secret, that Power, or whatever you wish to call it, which, when accepted and developed through a process of right thinking, creates a philosophy of life which sweeps away all obstacles and brings that which every human desires: success, happiness and contentment.

If it were not for the fact that I am intimately acquainted with the author I would pause to wonder where he acquired those facts and principles which he sets forth in his story, but suffice to say that I know that he knows what he is talking about, and he clearly outlines a system of mechanics which can be used by every one — irrespective of his or her walk in life.

Do exactly as he says, put his plan into operation—and I also promise you that almost over night you will be transformed and the things for which you have wished all your life will be yours.

Your fears, trials and tribulations will fade into the mists. The door of yesterday will be closed forever. A grand and glorious feeling will engulf you and you will smile, and when you do, the world will smile with you.

I know it. I believe it and it is so.

(From the Forward.)

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Thoughts Are Things – Secrets to the Law of Attraction

Just when you thought you had the Law of Attraction mastered…

….you find someone who wrote before it was popular and “everybody knew”.

Prentice Mulford was ages ahead of his time. Factually, what he wrote in the 1800’s is still being discovered today:

“When we dread a misfortune, or live in fear of any ill, or expect ill luck, we make also a construction of unseen element, thought, – which, by the same law of attraction, draws to it destructive, and to you damaging, forces or elements. Thus the law for success is also the law for misfortune…”

When you read his philosophy, you see a man who tempered his writing with a great deal of hands-on “people study”. The advise you get here has been weighed against results. So it’s great stuff – and useful.

If you want the highly polished stuff that hypes your world, this author isn’t for you. But if you want the pitch straight, with no curves – then Mumford is the way to get the straight bottom line.

(Also contains the complete text of “The God In You”.)

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Think, Thank, Thunk – Self-Help Collection

Meet the Triumvirate of Self-Help

There are three authors who have completely changed your world – and continue to do so, today:

• Charles F. Haanel – “The Master Key System“
• Wallace D. Wattles – “The Science of Getting Rich“
• Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich“

How they did it is point of study. But every major self-help author and every true success on this planet all use the same underlying system.

I was fortunate to uncover and explore this system in my book “Go Thunk Yourself”, but later research only confirms this system as actual and underlying all that exists in our world – which is as we create it.

In this volume is a guidebook to their essential truths, so you can apply them to get rich or anything else you really want out of life.

From them, you can work out the solution to any problem – if you apply what they teach to yourself and your dreams.

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A Theory of Human Motivation by Abraham Maslow

An Introduction to the Wide Range of Human Motivations

(…which aren’t just running from “fear or pain”.)

The present paper is an attempt to formulate a positive theory of motivation which will satisfy these theoretical demands and at the same time conform to the known facts, clinical and observational as well as experimental. It derives most directly, however, from clinical experience.

This theory is, I think, in the functionalist tradition of James and Dewey, and is fused with the holism of Wertheimer, Goldstein, and Gestalt Psychology, and with the dynamicism of Freud and Adler. This fusion or synthesis may arbitrarily be called a ‘general-dynamic’ theory.

It is far easier to perceive and to criticize the aspects in motivation theory than to remedy them. Mostly this is because of the very serious lack of sound data in this area. I conceive this lack of sound facts to be due primarily to the absence of a valid theory of motivation.

The present theory then must be considered to be a suggested program or framework for future research and must stand or fall, not so much on facts available or evidence presented, as upon researches to be done, researches suggested perhaps, by the questions raised in this paper.

(From the Introduction)

This is the original 1943 paper by Abraham Maslow which set the Psychology World on fire with its original thinking.

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The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart

Meet a Young Girl That Nature Loved and Civilization Scorned

For those whom Nature loves, the Story of Opal is an open book. They need no introduction to the journal of this Understanding Heart. But the world veils the spirit and callouses the instincts, dulls honest curiosity and replaces it with criticism and doubt.

Those who are removed from Nature demand facts and backgrounds, theories and precise explanations. For them it seems worthwhile to uncover and publicize a more “tabloid” review of a child’s “hidden” story beyond the diary, and to attempt to weave together a warped fiction based on presumed facts and prejudices.

This is the story of a rare and unique genius, who was ill-equipped to deal with the clothed savagery of so-called “civilized society.”

As a child growing up in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon at the turn of the century, Opal Whiteley roamed the fields and forests and logging camps, recording all she saw in a secret diary. She began her diary at the age of six, writing with colored pencils on scraps of butcher paper, wrapping paper and the backs of envelopes.

Opal preferred to be alone, spending her days in the forests with the animals and trees. Some of her friends were Michael Angelo Sanzio Raphael, the “most tall fir tree that grows back of the barn,” and Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus, “that most velvety wood rat.”

Opal was considered by her family as an odd and different child. What they didn’t know was that Opal a unique and extreme genius (although later mistaken for mental illness.) She had a heightened sense of awareness of the sights and sounds around her. She was learning constantly, both from the abundance of local flora and fauna, as well as an insatiable reader. She was well ahead of all of her peers (and probably all of the adults) around her.

The Diary That A Nation Shamed Into Obscurity

Her heightened sensibilities and her genius for expressing herself combined to create the most fascinating diary ever written. Writing each day, she observed her surroundings in the mill town and wrote “a long time ago this road had a longing to go across the river, and some that had understanding made it a bridge to go across on.”

While picking up potatoes in the field with her grandfather she wrote, “All the times I was picking up potatoes, I did have conversations with them. I have thinks these potatoes growing here did have knowings of star-songs. I have kept watch in the field at night, and I have seen the stars look kindness down upon them. I have walked between the rows of potatoes, and I have watched the star-gleams on their leaves. And as the wind did go walking in the field, I did follow her down the rows. Her goings-by made ripples on my nightgown.”

Opal hid her secret diary in a hollow log in the woods near her home in Cottage Grove, Oregon. When Opal was 14, her younger sister found the diary and tore it to pieces in a fit of jealous anger. Heartbroken, Opal kept the pieces and stored them at a neighbor’s house in an old hatbox.

When Opal was 23, she met Ellery Sedgwick. publisher of the Atlantic Monthly. Hoping he would publish her nature books for children, she told him of her childhood in the logging camps of the Cascade Mountains.

Intrigued with her personality and her memory for detail, Sedgwick wondered if she had kept a diary as a child. She said that she had, and he asked to see it at once. The hat box was brought to New York. For nine months, Opal worked to piece her diary back together. She and an assistant, paid by the publisher, managed to get two years of her journal re-assembled. In 1920 The Diary of Opal Whiteley was published by the Atlantic Monthly.

A work of genius, from the hand of a child

Hailed as a work of genius, capturing “the essence of the spirit of childhood,” the diary of this 7 year-old girl became a national best-seller.

But because of the diary’s brilliance, people soon began to question if one so young could have written it, and Opal was quickly assailed as a fraud.

The editor of the Whiteley’s local town newspaper lead the charge, and the East Coast papers soon echoed the witch hunt. Ten months after its publication, the diary was out of print and Opal was disgraced. Her family had to move and change their name to avoid the libelous press.

Opal had already left the United States and made her home in England. Opal toured widely, celebrated by European and Indian royalty. Then she vanished from public view as World War II raged.

In 1948. She was found rummaging in the bombed-out rubble of buildings in England during World War II. She was looking for long-loved, but now uncared-for books. Her neighbors in the tenement house where she lived called the authorities and Opal was taken to a public rest home in Napsbury, England. She was well cared for until until she died there on February 16, 1992.

Make up your own mind: genius or fraud?

Reprinted after nearly a century of obscurity, the mysterious “DIARY OF OPAL WHITELEY” comes to life again.

Part of the “Magic of Believing” Library, you may find that your beliefs create the facts around you, just as Opal and her enemies both found for themselves.

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Secretum Secretorum – The Secret of Secrets

Welcome to probably the longest-running bestselling self-help book in known history.

The Secret of Secrets was one of the most widely-read texts of the High Middle Ages. Medieval readers took the ascription to Aristotle as authentic and treated this work among Aristotle’s genuine works. It was on the medieval “best-seller” list for hundreds of years. (And was reportedly traced to even earlier Arabic texts…)

Copland’s text has been interpreted with more modern American English, keeping the format true to their Middle English grammar and phrasing in order to preserve the original meaning as much as possible.

Primarily, I’ve worked to keep this text to simple word-substitution. This book is being published as a beta version in order to add to our knowledge, not as a final and authoritative work.

The reader will find some interesting terms with now-archaic (even obsolete) uses. However, you will find your self living and understanding the regal life of the Middle Ages, a time before modern chemistry, but not before physicians (or even lawyers).

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Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion

Self -suggestion, or rather Autosuggestion, is quite a new subject,

…and yet at the same time it is as old as the world.

It is new in the sense that until now it has been wrongly studied and in consequence wrongly understood; it is old because it dates from the appearance of man on the earth. In fact autosuggestion is an instrument that we possess at birth, and in this instrument, or rather in this force, resides a marvelous and incalculable power, which according to circumstances produces the best or the worst results. Knowledge of this force is useful to each one of us, but it is peculiarly indispensable to doctors, magistrates, lawyers, and to those engaged in the work of education.

By knowing how to practice it consciously it is possible in the first place to avoid provoking in others bad autosuggestions which may have disastrous consequences, and secondly, consciously to provoke good ones instead, thus bringing physical health to the sick, and moral health to the neurotic and the erring, the unconscious victims of anterior autosuggestions, and to guide into the right path those who had a tendency to take the wrong one.

(From the Introduction)

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