I first encountered Webster Edgerly's work when I found a copy of Sex Magnetism (or to give its full title Private Lessons in the Cultivation of the Magnetism of Sexes, Teaching the Development and Wonderful Enlargement of Those Powers and Influences that Nature has Invented to Aid Every Human Life) by 'Edmund Shaftesbury' in a local charity bookshop. It is a substantial volume of crankish advice and opinion, and it intrigued me. Who wrote it, and when?
I consulted the Library of Congress online catalogue, which revealed Edgerly as the author, gave his dates (1852-1926) and provided a list of fifty-something different titles on such subjects as diet, hygiene, exercise, punctuation, longevity, telepathy and voice training. The next step was to track down more of his books, which was easy enough using the Internet. So far I have acquired a further six of them, enough I think to qualify me to reveal some of his true ghastliness to the world.
Edgerly was a man who believed himself to be always RIGHT, in emphatic capitals. Knowing as he did the secrets of Nature, it was his role to pass them on through the movement he called 'Ralstonism'.
"We believe that Ralstonism, since it is becoming universal, is as necessary as food, light or water. This movement is the grandest, noblest, and already the most far-reaching power that has originated in the present age.
"Ralstonism is the grandest movement that man is capable of establishing".
These resistible claims of his come from the Book of Star Ralstonism, the Book of General Membership of the Ralston Health Club, a sort of instruction book for novice Ralstonites. Ralstonism is mainly concerned with matters of diet, health and longevity; but - not content to limit himself to these areas - at the same time Edgerly was also promoting his teachings on psychological self-improvement through 'The Magnetism Club of America', whose key text Instantaneous Personal Magnetism is still in print today.
The high point of Edgerly's career was reached in about 1900, when the founder of the Purina Wholefood Company, William Danforth, observing that Ralstonism was gaining popularity and that its teachings on diet were largely compatible with his own views, invited Edgerly to participate in his enterprise. Despite Edgerly's pompous avowal in the Book of Star Ralstonism that
"It is our intention to hereafter endorse no goods or enterprises bearing the name 'RALSTON' in any form, but to reserve the word solely for the Club and its educational interests",
the company took a new name, Ralston Purina, under which it still flourishes today - though the brand is nowadays mainly associated with pet foods. With further zealous enthusiasm, in 1905 Edgerly attempted to put his ideas into practice when he founded "Ralston Heights", a house built to his own design to contain a community of Ralstonites. Like all such Utopian endeavours, it was not a success.
Given the scale of Edgerly's output and the fact that his books still sell, it would seem odd that he is so little-known - until you actually try to read his books. His style is so long-winded and sententious that any normal discriminating reader is likely to abandon any of them after a few chapters. For the connoissseur of kookery, though, there are plenty of delights. For a start there is the grandiosity of his claims, as instanced by the quotes at the head of this article, or this, from Operations of the Other Mind:
"Against the growing errors, vagaries, morbid theories, occult teachings, and wild beliefs that are darkening present-day life, depressing the mind, weakening the nerves, preying on the health and creating gloomy forebodings, this work comes as an inspiring guide and a practical instructor.
"It has been our wish and purpose to make this course of training one of the most important and valuable ever published. So, into the book we have put the great study, 'HOW TO EMPTY THE MIND.' Recall the countless times you have been mentally upset, worried, bothered with troubles. Think of what it would have meant-and will know mean - to know how to cast all such mental torture out of your mind. The relief and peace of mind this one study alone can bring you can be worth thousands of dollars."
(Certainly, an empty mind helps when reading this stuff). His titles, too are remarkable: I already mentioned Sex Magnetism, but I also like Brain Tests: A New System to Determine the Place of Every Human Being in the Scale of Civilization: A Study in Practical Psychology Which Takes Minds That Are Wrong and Makes Them Right. No half-heartedness about that, is there? Many of his works have likewise an impressive organisational scheme: not divided into anything as mundane as chapters but for example 'cycles' or 'departments'. Within this framework what you typically find is some sound if unexciting advice - such as suggesting that it is a good idea to clean your teeth, or not to eat indigestible food before giving a lecture (I would second this one, having once haplessly burped my way through an after-lunch presentation), mixed with slightly stranger stuff, like his recommendation in Sex Magnetism that every young man should engage with a form of probationary marriage with a woman old enough to be his grandmother, and the infamous quote in Star Ralstonism that:
"Watermelons are poisonous to most Caucasians".
Edgerly liked to claim a scientific basis for his beliefs, but actually he was remarkably ill-informed, even for his time. For instance, we learn in Instananeous Personal Magnetism that:
"All growth in the kingdom of plants, flowers and trees is due to the magnetism of the sun in drawing the material from the earth. If this were lacking, nothing could have life."
And in Mental Magnetism:
"The brain, when very shallow, is round and smooth, comparatively speaking. It is never perfectly round, nor is it perfectly smooth. Even the brain of an idiot has some indentations and convolutions."
Some of Edgerly's propositions are hard to refute because impossible to understand:
"... diffused atomic magnetism when brought into a collective condition becomes the magnetic power of life"
or otherwise bizarre:
"The eye has been described by scientists as a small-sized volcano"
(Both these last from Instantaneous Personal Magnetism).
To locate such little gems as these one has to dig into deep and unpromising seams: Edgerly was a master of padding, in which respect one of his favourite techniques was to pile anecdote upon anecdote in support of his argument. For example in the just two chapters - sorry, 'cycles' - of Operations of the Other Mind, there are no less than 43 anecdotes, of which this is a typical if short example:
"A man who had also carried in his mind a secret that he would not have known under any condition, began to think too much about it. The result was that his sister caught the impression and began to think at times of the very same thing. At length she sought information concerning it, and pursued the matter until she had ascertained the whole secret".
I have not counted how many there are in the whole book, but it has 27 'cycles', so there are probably hundreds of them. Imagine if you can the deadening effect they have when read in bulk. In general they are either completely anonymous, concerning 'a banker', 'a doctor', 'a lawyer' or 'a clergyman'; or else they feature one of Edgerly's favourite famous folk, such as Daniel Webster, Edison, or:
... Gladstone, the great Prime Minister, whose personal magnetism won him the highest honours in the gift of the nation. He not only possessed the Shaftesbury works but, at the solicitation of Queen Victoria, presented her with one of them that she admired. These facts were published at the time.
- this from the introduction to the British edition of Instantaneous Personal Magnetism. Although it refers to 'Shaftesbury' in the third person it is unmistakeably in Edgerly's turgid style. (Which book did Queen Victoria admire? Where were the facts 'published at the time'? It couldn't be that Edgerly just made this stuff up, surely?).
When I wanted to know the numbers of anecdotes referred to above, there was no need to count since Edgerly had thoughtfully numbered them. He must have liked numbered lists, since his books are filled with them: lists of rules, of foods, of personality types and traits, of exercises, of things to avoid ... In a chapter entitled 'Wreckage' of Sex Magnetism, he enumerates 62 'great truths', of which this is typical:
"Every woman should have a man. If she has no husband let her cling to her father, son or brother. If these are lacking, let her entertain in a social way, and have men and women call to see her, and call upon men and women. It is not good for women to see only women, for they soon become gossips."
Finally, I want to mention one of the most revealing of Edgerly's books, Brain Tests. In his introduction he asserts that it
"... should be made a part of every school and college training; for it surpasses in importance the whole fabric of knowledge taught by the greatest universities."
Its title would suggest that the provision of some set of criteria by which the merits of different brains can be judged, but in fact it is actually a series of written lectures - rants really - which are justified on the unconvincing premise that ones brain is tested by reading and attempting to understand them. If you follow, and presumably agree with, Edgerly's arguments, you have a fit brain. What these 'tests' actually demonstrate is Edgerly's darker side, those views that are only hinted at in most of his other books, such as his racism:
"The yellow race are seeping in very rapidly, despite efforts to keep them out"
And his totalitarianism:
"Tramps, idlers, loafers and the whole slum crowd should be deported."
"Make cordons round the pest sections of the cities; move these cordons forward month by month, year by year, closing in on the criminals, narrowing their zone, and eventually ending their worthless careers."
He also believed that taxation was far too high - a familiar refrain from his end of the political spectrum - and that political parties and the jury system should be abolished. "Weak-minded" people should be sterilised. Heavy smoking was a sign of inherited syphilis:
"It is wholly impossible to coax, induce, flatter or shame a woman into smoking cigarettes if her blood is pure and free from syphilis".
Which illustrates I hope what a warm and gifted man Edgerly was, and how tragic it is that his name has become so obscure, though he does have at least one living devotee.
Comments
Alfred, Thank you for
Thanks for such an insight
I've owned a 1930 edition of
As a collector of Edgerly's
As a collector of Edgerly's work, I'm delighted to be able to tell you that he displays an amazing consistency: no matter what he writes about he has very little to say - apart from vacuous boasts about the brilliance of his books - at great length. Some of his titles have quite astonishingly brazen amounts of padding: a recent purchase of mine, "Lessons in the Art of Extemporaneous Speaking", is almost entirely made up of lists of words and quotes from other sources.
Is this connected in any way
Excellent review! I
I don't what drives a person
Your man "making efforts to
Your man "making efforts to improve the world" was a misanthrope and racist, a charlatan, liar, and purveyor of general humbug. So I find your protestations frankly ridiculous.
Actually I quite agree with
i myself have just finished
I for one know that this type
Do you seriously believe that there are people who don't want you to read the works of Webster Edgerly? Who are these weirdos?
I came to the conclusion that Edgerly was a crank because I read him. If you come to a different conclusion, that's fine.
edgerly webster does have a
I have only read one of Mr
Hahaha, this mans life's work
Hahaha, this mans life's work is the quackery stuff of legend. I love it! Thanks for the background!
That was so funny, it made me
That was so funny, it made me laugh. I had a full set of the "Personal Magnetism" series that belonged to my grandfather, who I never met. I have several of his books. I too found it a bit offputting in places, so I didn't keep any of the set except Universal Magentism, Vol. 1. The rest I either gave to someone, or gave to a library. I do like his ideas on meditation, which he called "reverie".
I came across the Shaftesbury
I came across the Shaftesbury books in 1976. The first books I bought by him were Instantanous Personal Magnetism, Advanced Magnetism, Mental Magnetism, and Sex Magnetism. I was determine to read all of his books just for research purposes. But thr futher I read into his books a found him to be a white supremacist. Not being from Europe I found his racist comments silly and childish. But I was looking for information about human nature and the mind and other self- improvement ideas. So to make this short I ended up reading all 17 books on the reading list second page. Of the many wacky comments Shafesbury came out with was that the Caucasion came out of the ground like a plant and was in no way a child of the African. All top notch DNA science says all human life came out of East Africa. But I wanted to find out for myself what was thise man teaching his followers. Coudl hid information have any harmful effect on me because I am not aware of it. Being that I have love to study mass movement I had to read as many of his books as I could. Over the past 35 years I have read 18 of his books before 1978. I am very well informed about this man. In spite of his long winded style I read his over and over again and I have learned quite a bit from this man. Many of his ideas are out of date. But many of ideas were ahead of the times. I did not blow him off as I fraud. But as someone I had to defend myself against. So I read his 18 of his books as a way of going into enemy territiory and doing intell to bring back what was useful. White Supremacist like him had quite a bit of influence by then and in his. From reading this man in detail for over 35 years he mixed truth with falsehood and talk out both sides og his mouth but I think he was a genius. I did not blow him off. But I took his work very serious. It is good for people of color to know and study the minds of white supremacists like him. He complied information from many different cultures and said they were lower than him. In spite of his racist views I found many things in his books that were a source of empowerment. Him seemed to be taking these ideas from yogis and mystics from the East and re-formulating in a different system to it to Europeans. He took things from Islam, Hindo, Christ, all over and book them in his books to improve his race. I think he had a very hard time when the Sufi mystic Inayat Khan made that big splash in the 1920's. Here is this Black Indian spiritual genius came to America married to a white woman sitting down talking with Henry Ford. They had to counter the Sufi Movement with him.
I must say I did learn a lot from reading those Shaftesbury booksin spite of some his misinformed positions on race. I have to buy and read just one more and I would have all of the ones posted in his Advanced Magnetism book. To be aware I had to do intell on this man. What a trip it was reading all of his books. In spite of some of his sometimes silly and childish scapegoating of Black for the faults of whites I found his work very deep. His books teach you all about life this is what I found scares many people who I exposed his less racial books to. He does expose people to many ideas that people try to come close to today but cannot. Thank you this post it was good to read these many comments about this man.
I too, as a person of color,
I too, as a person of color, find his work interesting. I have an original "Be Your Own Doctor" published in 1928 by the Ralston University Press. The subtitle is "...a drugless system of special and private treatments"... including "...THE GREAT TRIPLE METHOD OF HEALTH AND CURE" As a public health professional some of his teachings are consistent with contemporary admonitions for healthy lifestyles and prevention of chronic diseases such as CVD and Type2 Diabetes.
Something old can become new again...
Stephen
I do believe most of them are
I do believe most of them are trolling you, Alfred.
I doubt it, though who knows?
I doubt it, though who knows?
The joy of trolling is in the creation of outrage. Here, there's only me, pretty much, and while I will answer back I don't get riled enough for there to be much fun in it. From my experience of nuts on the net, since there are genuinely still people who believe the earth is flat, the idea that some would think Webster Edgerly an original writer is not much of a stretch.
Alfred,
Alfred,
Tell me if I'm wrong but you seem to have deleted my comments. As his great-grandson I am in possession of hundreds of pictures (including him in Civil War uniform.) I also have a majority of first editions of the books plus many rare pieces that were issued only to subscribers. I have similar feelings about much of his terrible talks on genocide and the place of women in life. Instead of deleting my views you might find information you don't already know. I hope you are really interested in this man I might be able to add something you don't already know.
I hope you have an open mind to new information. And true that this is your blog and you can delete me but to get a more complete picture you might want to keep an open mind and listen to new information on the subject.
Yours,
David Bates
Hi David,
Hi David,
I don't believe I did delete your comments. It's not my policy to do so. There was a time recently when there were technical issues and people were struggling with the comment form so perhaps they didn't get submitted properly. If you have information about Edgerly please feel free to share it.
As I say it is not my habit to censor, merely to express contrary views when I have them. If you look around the site you may find commenters expressing a wide variety of opinions. Sometimes I will close comments on an article if they are simply repeating the same thing over and over, and I will remove spam and extreme forms of abuse but in general I try to let everyone have their say.
Regards Alfred
Hi David ! Do you have a
Hi David ! Do you have a original copy of your great grandfathers " Lessons in the Art of Acting " ? I have read that this particular work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge based on civilization as we know it. Very rare ! most are in important libraries around the world.
Arnold, the words you cite
Arnold, the words you cite are part of the standard blurb used by a publish on demand publisher and have no relevance to the specific work in question. See here for another example: http://www.amazon.com/Provincial-Reconstruction-Teams-Scholars-Edition/dp/1298046173 They just publish anything they can scan, good or bad.
if you like you can buy my edited edition of Lessons in Acting to get a flavour of the original, or you can buy the whole thing from one of these POD people but then you won't get my supposedly humorous commentary,
It's possibly the silliest attempt to teach acting in book form ever written but it's terribly long-winded and not a light read.
Just getting back. I have an…
Just getting back. I have an original first edition of this book released in 1889. It is in very good shape if you know of anyone who collects such please let me know. Thanks !
Knowing almost nothing about
Knowing almost nothing about Edgerly, I find that this ugly review, designed to "reveal his ghastliness", and attempting to do so with a collection of poorly contexted quotations (for example, the critic seems totally oblivious that "yellow" as a racial description was current at the time, and remains current and non-offensive in some Asian languages) that are so negatively framed as to destroy all confidence in their representativity, leaves me with the sense that I would prefer an old-time Utopianist to an unbearably sardonic modern cynic. The more objective treatment on other parts on this website would probably have better served than the gleefully pretentious denunciations here, as I remain uninformed, and am obliged to continue searching elsewhere for useful commentary on the man.
Oh dear. Good luck finding
Oh dear. Good luck finding "useful commentary" on Edgerly. If you do find any, please let me know.
I am interested to learn that "the yellow race seeping ..." isn't racist. In those days, everybody seeped and nobody thought anything about it.
"... diffused atomic
"... diffused atomic magnetism when brought into a collective condition becomes the magnetic power of life"
It is easy for us, fans of Shaftesbury to comprehend this.
When diffuse magnetism is collected it becomes a powerful force in life.