James Allen was born in Leicester, England, in 1864. He took his first job at fifteen to support his family, after his father was murdered while looking for work in America. Allen worked as a private secretary with various manufacturing companies until 1902, when he left to devote himself fully to writing. He soon finished his first book, From Poverty to Power, and then moved to Ilfracombe, England, where he went on to write eighteen more books before his death in 1912. Originally published in 1902, A a Man Thinketh is his second and more widely celebrated work, cited by generations of prosperity authors.