Born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1871, Florence Scovel Shinn spent many years working as an artist and illustrator of children's literature in New York City before writing her New Thought classic The Game of Life and How to Play It. Unable to find publisher, she published the book herself in 1925. Shinn went on to write Your World Is Your Wand and The Secret Door to Success, and became widely regarded as an important American spiritual teacher. She died in 1940.