It Works by RHJ

Author:RHJ
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

EVERYMAN PHILOSOPHER

In the 1920s, as today, some social critics believed that New Thought’s law-of-attraction theology bred selfishness by encouraging material acquisition. One New Thought figure of the day sought to resolve the moral quandaries of self-seeking metaphysics. He wanted to devise a philosophy of achievement that also encouraged ethical growth and inner refinement. He concealed his identity behind the initials R.H.J.—this was Roy Herbert Jarrett.

By profession, Jarrett sold typewriters and office printing machines. But this salesman accomplished what few practical philosophers or ministers ever did: He constructed a morally grounded philosophy of personal success and higher living, couched in everyday, immensely persuasive language. At age fifty-two, Jarrett brought his ideas to the world through his self-published, pocket-sized pamphlet It Works.

Ordinary Americans who may have heard something about the new metaphysics and its promises of personal power, wealth, and peace of mind now had a way to test such claims by reading R.H.J.’s pamphlet in the space of an average lunch break. And many did. Readers who had never before given much notice to metaphysical ideas bought, and often gave away, large numbers of It Works, sending grateful testimonials to the address that Jarrett provided inside his reprints of the little book.

As indicated by his title, Jarrett intended It Works to be useful. According to the legend recounted at the front of the pamphlet, Jarrett had originally sent his short manuscript to a friend for critique. He identified this individual only by the initials J.F.S. The friend returned it with the simple notation “IT WORKS,” which Jarrett opted to use on his cover.

As it happens, the legend is true. The friend was Jewell F. Stevens, owner of an eponymous Chicago advertising agency, which specialized in religious books and items. In 1931, Stevens hired Jarrett to join his agency as a merchandising consultant and account manager. For Jarrett, the new position was deliverance from a tough, working-class background and years of toil in the Willy Loman domain of sales. Jarrett became the example of his own success philosophy.

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