The Gift of Understanding

Prentice Mulford was once described as a thinking man, not a reading man. His insights into the mysteries surrounding humanity derived from firsthand thought and experience, not from books. On such age-old topics as marriage, memory, justice, the power of the mind, and even the necessity of riches (all found in this collection), Mulford's attempts to understand our transcendental and physical natures were intuitive and sympathetic, not ordered and logical.

This very human quality, along with an unrelenting optimism and faith in man's goodness, lend a freshness and vitality to his work that transcend era. This is self-help for the soul, mind, and body.


American author PRENTICE MULFORD (1834-1891) is one of the oddest fixtures of 19th-century literature. After moving for years in the literary and Bohemian sets of San Francisco in the 1860s as a writer of humorous short stories, he lived as a hermit in New Jersey, where he wrote the books of modern spirituality that made him a pioneer of modern self-help philosophies, including Thoughts Are Things and The God in You.