author
Helen Van-Anderson
b. 1859
A pioneering New Thought writer and preacher, she founded Boston’s Church of the Higher Life and wrote fiction and spiritual works that blended everyday struggles with mystical ideas. Her books offer a window into the hopeful, experimental religious culture of the late 1800s and early 1900s.
1 Audiobook
The Right Knock A Story
by Helen Van-Anderson
About the author
Born in 1859, Helen Van-Anderson was an American New Thought author, minister, and religious organizer. She is best known for founding the Church of the Higher Life in Boston in 1894, an early New Thought church that grew quickly and helped give the movement a more organized public presence.
She was a student of Emma Curtis Hopkins, one of the key figures in early New Thought. Alongside her preaching and teaching, Van-Anderson published a range of books, including The Journal of a Live Woman and The Mystic Scroll: A Book of Revelation. Her writing moved between story, spiritual instruction, and visionary reflection.
Today, she is remembered as one of the women who helped shape early metaphysical religion in the United States. Even when biographical details are scarce, her surviving books and her role in the Church of the Higher Life show a writer deeply interested in inner transformation, practical faith, and the possibility of a more awakened life.