Ella Wheeler Wilcox was in her time a wildly popular syndicated columnist for the Hearst Publishing Empire.

She wrote about a hundred books:

Links to Ella Wheeler Wicox's Works:

• An Ambitious Man
• The Heart of New Thought
• New Thought Common Sense & What Life Means to Me
• New Thought Pastels
• Maurine
• Three Women

Her columns were avidly read across the country. She became known as the "poet of hope" and because of her popularity as a columnist her books sold quite well. While her prowess as a poet was not particular potent, her popularity more than made up for this.

The fact that her ideas were rooted in the truth of New Thought meant that her column provided a powerful podium for the dissemination of these important ideas during a time of progressive transformation. Her book Poems of Power is deeply informed with New Thought ideas and she wrote an essential book in the canon of New Thought called The Heart of New Thought.

Through her work as a columnist New Thought found a forum through which the masses and thoughtful people of her time could profit by her insights and transform their lives. Whereas publishers such as Elizabeth Towne were reaching many people who were favorably disposed toward intelligent insights. Ella was able to bring New Thought to the often closed minds of readers who shared the mass karma common to so many normal people.

Ella was born November 5, 1850, in the village of Johnstown, Rock County, Wisconsin. Her parents were Marcus H. Wheeler, and Sarah Pratt Wheeler, with three older children they had followed, "Grandsir Pratt" from Vermont in 1849.

In the spring of 1852 the Wheeler family settled in Dane County, Wisconsin in the town of Westport, where Ella grew up, in the home where she made her reputation as a writer of appealing poetry, until her marriage in 1884, when she went to Connecticut; from which state her Grandfather Wheeler had migrated to Vermont years before.

With a Great Grandfather Pratt seven years in the Revolutionary War, and his wife Elizabeth Currier of French blood; a Grandmother named Conner; a Mother, who, like most of her aunts and cousins, was addicted to the habit of composing verses, Ella had the inherited tendency; a regular family study of Shakespeare, Byron, Burns and modern poets all year round, 1849-50 doubtless added a prenatal influence, which formed the character of her ambition.

Her education was acquired in a district school, now named Ella Wheeler Wilcox School, except one short term at Wisconsin University, which was as she saw it a "waste of time."

Riding horseback, dancing, visiting girl friends, dreaming great dreams and being kind, was better than trying to master mathematics, of which she had a "holy horror."

In the years between 1865 and 1875, a strong prohibition wave was sweeping over Wisconsin. Good Tempar Lodges became numerous. Many of Ella Wheeler's earlier verses were in support of total abstinence and in opposition to booze, its makers, and its venders. Fifty-six of these were published in a volume entitled "Drops of Water." Her volume entitled "Shells" contained 119 poems--more than 175 poems and the author not 23 years old. It is doubtful if anyone knows the names of all her published poems. They were a great multitude and everyone found ardent admirers--and critics.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote verses which appealed to the public and never one verse strained or ungramatical, as she states in her memoirs, her first check paid for a dress to wear to a wedding, in March 1869. Her financial returns were not of importance until after 1880, though she was known and loved by thousands of readers. She wrote for the same reason that a bird sings. It was what she was made for. Her marriage in 1884 was a love match. The death of Mr. Wilcox overwhelmed her, until satisfied that she had received messages from him through her practice of Spiritualism. Then she resumed literary work, and other activities; including war work in France up to Armistice Day.

Whilst Mrs. Wilcox was certainly New Thought in her general outlook, and in common with many who later became leaders of the New Thought movement, attended classes by the "teacher of teachers," Emma Curtis Hopkins , she went much farther than many of the leaders of the movement in her espousal also of ideas which are regarded as occult. And some of the leaders were not always happy with what she wrote. She was strongly drawn to Spiritualism and gave much credit to Oriental--especially Indian thought, as the source of many of her ideas.

She wrote not only poetry; but did a great deal of prose writing as well. A number of her essays specifically on New Thought themes appeared in a volume entitled The Heart of New Thought, which the publisher's preface described as a "Noteworthy interpretation of New Thought, the backbone of which philosophy is the Power of Right Thought....Mrs. Wilcox is ever the voice of the people: what she says is practical, what she thinks is clear, what she feels is plain."

She died on October 30, 1919, at her home in Short Beach, Conn. "The art of being kind" was her religion, and she lived it every day of her life. The world is better because Ella Wheeler Wilcox lived.