Florence Scovel Shinn

Florence Scovel Shinn (1871–1940) was an American artist and teacher of New Thought. Born in Camden, New Jersey, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and for years illustrated magazines and books in New York, where she married and divorced the painter Everett Shinn. In middle life she became a metaphysical teacher and healer, and in 1925, unable to find a publisher, she brought out The Game of Life and How to Play It herself. Your Word Is Your Wand and The Secret Door to Success followed. Her books, short and full of anecdotes, remain in print and are quoted by later writers on positive thinking.