Wallace Delois Wattles (1860-1911) was an American author. A pioneer success writer, he remains personally somewhat obscure, but his writing has been widely popular in the New Thought and self-help movements. He was associated with the Chicago-based school of New Thought that centered around the teachings of Emma Curtis Hopkins. Through his personal study and experimentation he claimed to have discovered the truth of New Thought principles and put them into practice in his own life and wrote books outlining these principles. His best known work is a 1910 book called The Science of Getting Rich in which he explained how to become wealthy. He claimed to have personally tested the principles he described and they apparently worked, for although he had lived most of his life in poverty, in his later years he was a prosperous man. His other works include: Health Through New Thought and Fasting, Hellfire Harrison, Making of the Man Who Can, A New Christ, The Science of Being Great and The Science of Being Well.