Arnold Bennett and Theron Q. Dumont

Theron Q. Dumont, whose real name was William Walker Atkinson, was a very important and influential figure in the early days of the New Thought Movement. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA on December 5, 1862.He pursued a business career from 1882 onwards and in 1894 he was admitted as an attorney to the Bars of Pennsylvania. Whilst he gained much material success in his profession as a lawyer, the stress and over-strain eventually took its toll, and during this time he experienced a complete physical and mental breakdown, and financial disaster. He looked for healing and in the late 1880's he found it with New Thought. From mental and physical wreck and financial ruin, he wrought through its principles, perfect health, mental vigor and material prosperity.He wrote nearly a hundred books with many other pseudonyms. William Walker Atkinson died November 22, 1932, in California as one of the truly greats of The New Thought Movement. Arnold Bennett was an English novelist, playwright, and essayist, born on May 27, 1867 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. After a local education Bennett finished his education at the University of London. In 1889 Bennett won a literary competition hosted by Tit-Bits magazine and was encouraged to take up journalism full-time. In 1894, he became assistant editor of the periodical Woman. He noticed that the material offered by a syndicate to the magazine was not very good, so he wrote a serial which was bought by the syndicate for £75. He then wrote another. This became The Grand Babylon Hotel. Just over four years later, his first novel, A Man from the North, was published to critical acclaim and he became editor of Woman magazine. From 1900 he devoted himself full-time to writing, giving up the editorship. He continued to write journalism despite the success of his career as a novelist. In 1926, at the suggestion of Lord Beaverbrook, he began writing an influential weekly article on books for the Evening Standard newspaper.As well as the novels, much of Bennett's non-fiction work has stood the test of time. One of his most popular non-fiction works, which is still read to this day, is the self-help book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.Bennett died on March 27, 1931.