Wallace Delois Wattles was an American New Thought writer.
Little is known about his life. Wattles was born in the USA shortly after the civil war (1860) and experienced much failure in his earlier years.
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 as "keeping house". Wallace is listed as being born in Illinois while his parents are listed as born in New York. No other siblings are recorded as living with the family.
According to the 1910 census, Wattles was married to Abbie Bryant, 47. They had three children: Florence Wattles, 22, Russell H. Wattles, 27, and Agnes Wattles, 16.
Later in his life he took to studying the various religious beliefs and philosophies of the world including those of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Swedenborg, Emerson, and others.
It was through his tireless study and experimentation that he discovered the truth of New Thought principles and put them into practice in his own life. He began to write books outlining these principles. He practiced the technique of creative visualisation and as his daughter Florence relates, "He wrote almost constantly. It was then that he formed his mental picture. He saw himself as a successful writer, a personality of power, an advancing man, and he began to work toward the realization of this vision. He lived every page ... His life was truly the powerful life."
Elizabeth Towne, in her magazine "Nautilus", published the articles of Wallace D. Wattles in almost every issue in the early 1900's and until his untimely death in 1911.
Wattles' best known book, The Science of Getting Rich is a clear-cut and practical guide, with a mental and spiritual approach on how to become rich.
As a practical author, always Wattles encouraged his readers to test his theories on themselves rather than take his word as an authority, and he claimed to have tested his methods on himself and others before publishing them.
His daughet Florence wrote: "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 to 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;
Wattles' best known work is 1910 book called "The Science of Getting Rich". His bibliography also include "Health Through New Thought and Fasting", "The Science of Being Great", "The Science of Being Well", and a novel, Hellfire Harrison.