Discover the Best Books Written by Wallace D. Wattles

Wallace Delois Wattles was an American New Thought writer. He remains personally somewhat obscure, but his writing has been widely quoted and remains in print in the New Thought and self-help movements. Wattles' best-known work is a 1910 book called The Science of Getting Rich, in which he explains how to become wealthy.

Wattles' daughter, Florence A. Wattles, described her father's life in a "Letter" that was published shortly after his death in the New Thought magazine Nautilus, edited by Elizabeth Towne. The Nautilus had previously carried articles by Wattles in almost every issue, and Towne was also his book publisher. Florence Wattles wrote that her father was born in the U.S. in 1860, received little formal education, and found himself excluded from the world of commerce and wealth.

According to the 1880 US Federal Census, Wallace lived with his parents on a farm in Nunda Township, McHenry County, Illinois, and worked as a farm laborer. His father is listed as a gardener, and his mother is "keeping house." Wallace is listed as being born in Illinois, while his parents are listed as being born in New York. No other siblings are recorded as living with the family. 

According to the 1910 census, Wattles was married to Abbie Wattles (née Bryant), 47. They had three children: Florence Wattles, 22, Russell H. Wattles, 27, and Agnes Wattles, 16. It also shows that at the time, Wallace's mother, Mary A. Wattles, was living with the family at the age of 79. Florence wrote that "he made lots of money, and had good health, except for his extreme frailty" in the last three years before his death.

Wattles died on February 7, 1911, in Ruskin, Tennessee, and his body was transported home for burial in Elwood, Indiana. As a sign of respect, businesses closed throughout the town for two hours on the afternoon of his funeral. His death at age 51 was regarded as "untimely" by his daughter; in the previous year, he had not only published two books (The Science of Being Well and The Science of Getting Rich), but he had also run for public office.

In 1896 in Chicago, Illinois, Wattles attended "a convention of reformers" and met George Davis Herron, a Congregational Church minister and professor of Applied Christianity at Grinnell College who was then attracting nationwide attention by preaching a form of Christian Socialism.

After meeting Herron, Wattles became a social visionary and began to expound upon what Florence called "the wonderful, social message of Jesus." According to Florence, he at one time had held a position in the Methodist Church but was ejected for his "heresy." Two of his books (A New Christ and Jesus: The Man and His Work) dealt with Christianity from a Socialist perspective.

In the 1908 election, he ran as a Socialist Party of America candidate in the Eighth Congressional District; in 1910 he again ran as a Socialist candidate for the office of Prosecuting Attorney for the Madison County, Indiana, 50th court district. He did not win either election. Florence Wattles remained a Socialist after his death and was a delegate to the Socialist Party National Committee in 1912 and 1915.