William Walker Atkinson Bibliography, Part 2

[robertmathiesen]

Here's the second installment of my bibliography of Atkinson's published books and booklets.

This part lists the twelve books that Atkinson co-authored with Edward E. Beals. They form a twelve-volume series called the "Personal Power Books," and were all published by the Personal Power Company in 1922.

Also in 1922 the same company published an autobiographical book under the title _The Inner Secret, or That Something Within_, by "X." Although the copyright to this enigmatic volume is in Beals' name, it is not clear whether "X" is Beals himself, or Atkinson, or perhaps some third person. The question needs further work.

Edward E. Beals was a founding officer of the short-lived Fiduciary Press, which began its work in 1907 when it purchased Atkinson's own publishing company (with offices in the Chicago Masonic Temple building) from him. By this purchase it also acquired the copyrights (and the printing plates) for the works which Atkinson had already published from his company, including _The Secret of Mental Magic_ and _Mental Fascination_ (both published in 1907).

In 1907 the Fiduciary Press also published a book by Beals himself, _The Law of Financial Success_. It does not appear to have published books by anyone other than Beals and Atkinson, or anything alt all after 1907.



2. Writing under his own name (William Walker Atkinson) with Edward E. Beals as co-author.

1922a Personal Power; or, Your Master Self. (Personal Power Books, I.) 170 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922b Creative Power; or, Your Constructive Forces. (Personal Power Books, II.) 173 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922c Desire Power; or, Your Energizing Forces. (Personal Power Books, III.) 172 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922d Faith Power; or, Your Inspirational Forces. (Personal Power Books, IV.) 172 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922e Will Power; or, Your Dynamic Forces. (Personal Power Books, V.) 171 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922f Subconscious Power; or, Your Secret Forces. (Personal Power Books, VI.) 172 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922g Spiritual Power; or, The Infinite Fount. (Personal Power Books, VII.) 171 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922h Thought Power; or, Radio-Mentalism. (Personal Power Books, VIII.) 174 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922i Perceptive Power; or, The Art of Observation. (Personal Power Books, IX.) 173 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922j Reasoning Power; or, Practical Logic. (Personal Power Books, X.) 174 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922k Character Power; or, Positive Individuality. (Personal Power Books, XI.) 173 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

1922l Regenerative [later: Sexual] Power; or, Vital rejuvenation. (Personal Power Books, XII.) 172 pp. First publ: Personal Power Co.

Comments

[dfr1973]

Are these the last books he published?

[robertmathiesen]

So far as I know, they are the last books that Atkinson published under his own name. Indeed, they and his Theron Q. Dumont titles seem to be the only books Atkinson wrote after 1914. Apart from them, his enormous productivity seems to have all happened within a span of 14 years, 1901-1914.

I, like Philip Deslippe, think that the books by "Swami Panchadasi" and "Swami Bhakta Vishita" are not by Atkinson at all. Deslippe has apparently heard from someone who had first-hand knowledge of their authorship that the true author of these books was a certain Claude Alexander Colin (1880-1954), a very interesting figure who was both a very accomplished stage-magician and a knowledgeable occultist, and who founded the the Crystal Silence League. (There is a not-too-bad Wikipedia article on him.) This, too, is a question that needs more research.