Theron Dumont's Biography(Books)(Photos)

Theron Q. Dumont (aka William Walker
Atkinson) (1862-1932)

Mental Science." Both were located in the
same building as Flower's Psychic Research

Theron Q. Dumont, whose real name was William

Company and New Thought Publishing Company.

Walker Atkinson, was a very important and
influential figure in the early days of the

While performing his New Thought editor job,
Atkinson became interested in Hinduism, and

New Thought Movement. Little is known about
his early years, except that he was born in

met up with one Baba Bharata, a pupil of the
late Yogi Ramacharaka, who had become

Baltimore, Maryland on December 5, 1862, to
William and Emma Atkinson, both of whom were

acquainted with Atkinson's writings. They
both shared similar ideas, and the men

born in Maryland also.

collaborated, and with Bharata providing the
material and Atkinson the writing talent,

He married Margaret Foster Black of Beverley,
New Jersey on October 1889 and they had two

they wrote a series of books which they
attributed to Yogi Ramacharaka as a measure

children. He pursued a business career from
1882 onwards and in 1894 he was admitted as

of their respect. Atkinson started writing
these books under the name Yogi Ramacharaka

an attorney to the Bars of Pennsylvania.
Whilst he gained much material success in his

in 1903. He wrote about 13 books under this
pseudonym. They were published by the Yogi

profession as a lawyer, the stress and
over-strain eventually took its toll, and

Publication Society in Chicago and reached
more people than his New Thought works did.

during this time he experienced a complete
physical and mental breakdown, and financial

In fact, all his books on yoga are still
reprinted today. The very fact that after all

disaster. He looked for healing and in the
late 1880's he found it with New Thought.

these years their books are well known around
the world and sell better with every passing

From mental and physical wreck and financial
ruin, he wrought through its principles,

year is a credit, too, to the two men who
wrote them.

perfect health, mental vigor and material
prosperity.

Atkinson wrote a great many books on New

Some time after his healing, Atkinson began

Thought as well, which became very popular
and influential among New Thought devotees

to write some articles on the Truths which he
had discovered which was then known as Mental

and practitioners and achieved wide
circulation. In 1903, he was admitted to the

Science, and in 1889 an article by him
entitled "A Mental Science Catechism,"

Bars of Illinois, which means he did not
leave that part of his life aside. If we

appeared in Charles Fillmore's new
periodical, Modern Thought.

assume that he also practised himself what he
preached, then that must have helped him

By the early 1890's Chicago had become a

quite a lot to strengthen his nervous system.
Beginning 1916 he started writing articles

major centre for New Thought, mainly through
the work of Emma Curtis Hopkins, and Atkinson

for Elizabeth Towne's magazine The Nautilis,
and from 1916 to 1919 he edited the journal

decided to move there and he became an active
promoter of the movement as an editor and

Advanced Thought, and was for a time honorary
president of the International New Thought

author. In 1900 he worked as an associate
editor of Suggestion, a New Thought journal,

Alliance.

and wrote his first book, Thought-Force in
Business and Everyday Life, being a series of

He wrote nearly a hundred books with many
other pseudonyms: Theodore Sheldon, Theron

lessons in personal magnetism, psychic
influence, thought-force, concentration,

Q.Dumont, Swami Panchadasi, The Three
Initiates, Magus Incognitus and probably

will-power & practical Mental Science.

others not identified at present. He wrote
books together with Eduard E. Beals and

He then met Sydney Flower, a well-known New
Thought publisher and businessman and teamed

Laurion, William De Laurence. He wrote a
series named The Arcane Teachings, published

up with him. In December, 1901 he assumed
editorship of Flower's popular New Thought

at Arcane Books Co., with 6 volumes, without
signature. Among these books we can identify

magazine, a post which he held up until 1905.
During these years he built for himself an

and comproof his authority in Arcane Formula
or Mental Alchemy; The Cosmic Laws; and Vril,

enduring place in the hearts of its readers.
Article after article of wonderful strength

or, Vital Magnetism.

and vital force flowed from his pen.
Meanwhile he also founded his own Psychic

William Walker Atkinson died on November 22,
1932, in California -- one of the truly