All These Things Added and other manuscripts by James Allen

Comprises hand-written manuscripts of three works illustrating Allen's philosophy of self-help: All These Things Added (published in 1903); Byways of Blessedness, 1904; Out from the Heart, 1904.

James Allen was a pioneer of the self-help movement. He had a difficult early life: he was forced to leave a promising school career due to the death of his father in New York in mysterious circumstances. This factor and spiritual interests and observations of the social injustices surrounding him, led him to write from his own experiences in order to inspire others. Having contributed to Sidney H. Beard's pro-vegetarianism magazine, The Herald of the Golden Age, in 1902, Allen published his own spiritual magazine, The Light of Reason, and a year later, As a Man Thinketh, his most famous work, which remains in print from numerous publishers. 'He never wrote theories, or for the sake of writing; but he wrote when he had a message, and it became a message only when he had lived it out in his own life, and knew that it was good. Thus he wrote facts, which he had proven by practice' (James Allen: A Life in Brief, Mitch Horowitz, from As A Man Thinketh, Penguin edition, 2009).

Open for research although at least 24 hours advance notice should be given.

Purchased from Blackwells.

The texts of the manuscripts are complete and contain several amendments and flap additions, conforming to the first printed editions, though there are slight variations regarding advertisement leaves and layout of preliminaries.