Prentice Mulford

Born in Sag Harbor, New York, in 1834, Prentice Mulford first made his name as a literary humorist and journalist. Sources agree that he spent important years in California before returning east, and his writing drew on a wide range of lived experience rather than purely academic study.

He is now remembered most for his role in the early New Thought movement. Works associated with him include Thoughts are Things, Your Forces and How to Use Them, and Prentice Mulford's Story: Life by Land and Sea, which reflect his blend of autobiography, practical philosophy, and advice on the mind's influence over daily life.

Mulford died in 1891, at about age fifty-seven. Though less famous than some later writers influenced by similar ideas, he remains an important bridge between 19th-century American literary culture and the personal development traditions that followed.