William Walker Atkinson (1862-1932) was a very important and influential figure in the early days of the New Thought Movement. Little is known about his early years, except that he was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 5, 1862, to William and Emma Atkinson, both of whom were born in Maryland also.

He married Margaret Foster Black of Beverley, New Jersey on October 1889 and they had two children. He pursued a business career from 1882 onwards and in 1894 he was admitted as an attorney to the Bars of Pennsylvania. Whilst he gained much material success in his profession as a lawyer, the stress and over-strain eventually took its toll, and during this time he experienced a complete physical and mental breakdown, and financial disaster. He looked for healing and in the late 1880's he found it with New Thought.

Some time after his healing, Atkinson began to write some articles on the Truths which he had discovered which was then known as Mental Science, and in 1889 an article by him entitled "A Mental Science Catechism," appeared in Charles Fillmore's new periodical, Modern Thought.

By the early 1890's Chicago had become a major centre for New Thought, mainly through the work of Emma Curtis Hopkins, and Atkinson decided to move there and he became an active promoter of the movement as an editor and author. In 1900 he worked as an associate editor of Suggestion, a New Thought journal, and wrote his first book, Thought-Force in Business and Everyday Life, being a series of lessons in personal magnetism, psychic influence, thought-force, concentration, will-power & practical Mental Science.

He then met Sydney Flower, a well-known New Thought publisher and businessman and teamed up with him. In December, 1901 he assumed editorship of Flower's popular New Thought magazine, a post which he held up until 1905.

While performing his New Thought editor job, Atkinson became interested in Hinduism, and met up with one Baba Bharata, a pupil of the late Yogi Ramacharaka, who had become acquainted with Atkinson's writings. They both shared similar ideas, and the men collaborated, and with Bharata providing the material and Atkinson the writing talent, they wrote a series of books which they attributed to Yogi Ramacharaka as a measure of their respect.

Atkinson started writing these books under the name Yogi Ramacharaka in 1903. He wrote about 13 books under this pseudonym. They were published by the Yogi Publication Society in Chicago and reached more people than his New Thought works did. In fact, all his books on yoga are still reprinted today. The very fact that after all these years their books are well known around the world and sell better with every passing year is a credit, too, to the two men who wrote them.

He wrote nearly a hundred books with many other pseudonyms: Theodore Sheldon, Theron Q.Dumont, Swami Panchadasi, The Three Initiates, Magus Incognitus and probably others not identified at present. He wrote books together with Eduard E. Beals and Laurion, William De Laurence. He wrote a series named The Arcane Teachings, published at Arcane Books Co., with 6 volumes, without signature. Among these books we can identify and comproof his authority in Arcane Formula or Mental Alchemy; The Cosmic Laws; and Vril, or, Vital Magnetism.

William Walker Atkinson died on November 22, 1932, in California -- one of the truly greats of The New Thought Movement.