Elizabeth Jones Towne (1865–1960) was an American writer, editor, and publisher who helped shape the New Thought movement at the dawn of the modern personal-development era. As founder and longtime editor of The Nautilus, one of the most widely read New Thought magazines of its time, she brought the principles of mental power, positive expectation, and self-mastery to a national audience decades before "self-help" became a household term.
Towne's writing focused on the practical application of mental discipline to everyday life — health, relationships, work, and personal happiness. She taught that the mind is the master architect of experience and that ordinary people, by deliberately directing their thoughts, attention, and emotional energy, can reshape their circumstances and unlock latent power. Her tone was warm, direct, and accessible — written for working women and men who wanted real results from the ideas she championed, not abstract philosophy.
Nightingale-Conant carries Towne's work as part of its classic personal-development library, including The Life Power and How to Use It — a foundational text in the lineage that runs through Wallace Wattles, Napoleon Hill, and on to the modern voices of success and abundance. For listeners who want to trace today's mind-power and manifestation teachings back to one of their earliest and most articulate sources, Elizabeth Towne is essential reading.
The Life Power and How to Use It
