Ella Wheeler Wilcox
New Thought Poet
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919), whilst perhaps not being one of America's greatest poets, was in her time one of the most popular, her verse appearing in innumerable magazines and periodicals as well as a number of books. She has probably been read by many more people than poets who have been considered her superiors. Whilst not all her poems are, of course, New Thought in outlook, in one of her books, Poems of Power, a dozen or more of her poems may be discerned typical of New Thought ideas and emphases.
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."