Almost a hundred years after publication, As A Man Thinketh continues to get rave reviews from readers. The plain prose and absence of hype are appealing within a genre that contains sensational claims and personalities, and the fact that we know so little about Allen makes the work somehow more intriguing.

The book's title comes from the Bible - 'As a man thinketh, so he is' - but despite this provenance, As A Man Thinketh is religion-neutral. Allen believed that the dynamic that linked thought to action and outer circumstances was a metaphysical law that could not err. In the way it identifies universal laws and applies them to the mechanics of desire and prosperity, the book is appropriately the 20th century's first self-help classic.

This edition from Kipling Wadsworth features a poetical translation of Chapter 1 ofThe Dhammapada by Sir Edwin Arnold, which James Allen quotes in a number of his essays.