{
  "id": "the-science-of-getting-rich",
  "shelfNumber": "19",
  "title": "The Science of Getting Rich",
  "subtitle": "",
  "authors": [
    "Wallace D. Wattles"
  ],
  "firstPublished": "1910",
  "firstPublicationNote": "First book publication: 1910, Elizabeth Towne.",
  "kind": "Historical motivational nonfiction",
  "themes": [
    "practice",
    "power"
  ],
  "theme": "winter",
  "layout": "winter",
  "tagline": "A method, and the beliefs beneath it.",
  "dek": "Seventeen short chapters connect purposeful action, gratitude and imagined possibility to a spiritual theory of prosperity. Wattles asks readers to think creatively rather than competitively. The interest today lies partly in watching how an early twentieth-century writer gives conviction the language of a method—and where that confidence asks more of the evidence than the text provides.",
  "art": {
    "src": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/the-science-of-getting-rich.webp",
    "alt": "Translucent amber prisms rise beside an unfinished strip of pale, torn paper.",
    "width": 1536,
    "height": 1024,
    "caption": "Original AI-generated atmosphere for PointCast. Not a book cover, archival image or historical document."
  },
  "context": {
    "heading": "Begin with what the preface asks you to accept.",
    "paragraphs": [
      "Seventeen short chapters connect purposeful action, gratitude and imagined possibility to a spiritual theory of prosperity. Wattles asks readers to think creatively rather than competitively. The interest today lies partly in watching how an early twentieth-century writer gives conviction the language of a method—and where that confidence asks more of the evidence than the text provides.",
      "Wallace D. Wattles (1860–1911) was an American New Thought writer. Published by Elizabeth Towne in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1910, this work links wealth to a metaphysical account of thought and action. Its historical influence is useful to explore alongside, rather than as a substitute for, questions about opportunity and economic conditions.",
      "The title’s science reflects Wattles’s own claim about his spiritual method. The resource presents this as a historical belief, not a proven wealth formula, money guarantee, investment strategy or financial advice."
    ],
    "sourceIds": [
      "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-1",
      "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-3",
      "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-4"
    ]
  },
  "authorNote": {
    "text": "Wallace D. Wattles (1860–1911) wrote within New Thought. Read the historical book’s spiritual and metaphysical assumptions beside its instructions about action; the word science in its title does not itself establish scientific evidence.",
    "sourceIds": [
      "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-1",
      "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-3",
      "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-4"
    ]
  },
  "entryPoints": [
    {
      "id": "premise",
      "label": "Premises",
      "title": "Read the preface closely.",
      "prompt": "Track what Wattles asks the reader to accept before the method begins. Which claims need support beyond the assertion?"
    },
    {
      "id": "action",
      "label": "Action",
      "title": "Place thinking beside doing.",
      "prompt": "Compare the chapters about thought with those about efficient action. What role does the argument assign to each?"
    },
    {
      "id": "limits",
      "label": "Limits",
      "title": "Notice the account’s missing conditions.",
      "prompt": "Which resources or circumstances fall outside a promise centred on individual thought? Keep those limits visible as you read."
    }
  ],
  "pathways": [
    {
      "label": "Begin with the argument",
      "title": "Begin with the argument.",
      "text": "Read the preface, then the chapters in sequence. Track what Wattles asks readers to accept before he offers a method."
    },
    {
      "label": "Thought beside action",
      "title": "Thought beside action.",
      "text": "Compare the chapters about thinking with those about acting and efficient action. Ask what the book assigns to imagination, work and circumstance."
    },
    {
      "label": "Read beside Allen",
      "title": "Read beside Allen.",
      "text": "Compare the two writers’ accounts of purpose and agency. Consider how a meditation on character becomes a promise about material prosperity."
    }
  ],
  "editions": [
    {
      "id": "wattles-tarcher-essay",
      "label": "The Science of Getting Rich — Tarcher edition",
      "format": "Paperback",
      "publisher": "Tarcher / Penguin Random House",
      "isbn": "9781585426010",
      "publicationDate": "2007-04-19",
      "pages": 160,
      "extras": "Modern reprint with a companion essay. No explicit unabridged or adaptation statement for this ISBN was verified for this edition. Includes the classic essay How to Get What You Want; 160-page paperback. A new introduction or named editor has not been established for this ISBN. Editorial and adaptation details remain unspecified for this ISBN.",
      "why": "Choose this paperback to read the main work alongside Wattles’s companion essay.",
      "sourceId": "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-3",
      "links": [
        {
          "kind": "new",
          "label": "View publisher / new edition",
          "url": "https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301913/the-science-of-getting-rich-by-wallace-d-wattles/9781585426010/",
          "note": "Selected paperback ISBN 9781585426010. Check the external provider’s current terms."
        },
        {
          "kind": "used",
          "label": "Browse used copies by ISBN",
          "url": "https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9781585426010/",
          "note": "Exact ISBN discovery. Compare condition, binding, edition and delivery terms with the individual seller."
        },
        {
          "kind": "borrow",
          "label": "Find your library in Libby",
          "url": "https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby",
          "note": "Search The Science of Getting Rich and Wallace D. Wattles through your participating library. Local licences, borrowing eligibility and availability vary; this does not establish a holding of the selected print ISBN."
        }
      ],
      "translator": "Not applicable — English original"
    },
    {
      "id": "wattles-sirius-ahsan",
      "label": "The Science of Getting Rich: The Inspiring Guide to Wealth and Success (Classic Edition)",
      "format": "Hardcover with jacket, according to the official description",
      "publisher": "Sirius / Arcturus; distributed by Simon & Schuster",
      "isbn": "9781398825895",
      "publicationDate": "2023-06-20",
      "pages": 112,
      "extras": "The official publisher/distributor description explicitly states original and unabridged text, plus a new introduction. Original and unabridged main text; New introduction by Tania Ahsan; Jacketed hardcover; 112 pages.",
      "why": "Choose this hardcover for an explicitly unabridged historical text with a contemporary introduction.",
      "sourceId": "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-4",
      "links": [
        {
          "kind": "new",
          "label": "View official distributor / new edition",
          "url": "https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Science-of-Getting-Rich/Wallace-D-Wattles/Arcturus-Classics-for-Financial-Freedom/9781398825895",
          "note": "Selected hardcover with jacket, according to the official description ISBN 9781398825895. Check the external provider’s current terms."
        },
        {
          "kind": "used",
          "label": "Browse used copies by ISBN",
          "url": "https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9781398825895/",
          "note": "Exact ISBN discovery. Compare condition, binding, edition and delivery terms with the individual seller."
        },
        {
          "kind": "borrow",
          "label": "Find your library in Libby",
          "url": "https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby",
          "note": "Search The Science of Getting Rich and Wallace D. Wattles through your participating library. Local licences, borrowing eligibility and availability vary; this does not establish a holding of the selected print ISBN."
        }
      ],
      "translator": "Not applicable — English original"
    }
  ],
  "digitalRoutes": [
    {
      "id": "historical-text",
      "label": "Read the historical English text at Project Gutenberg",
      "description": "A historical English-language text in Project Gutenberg’s catalogue, distinct from modern revisions and introductions.",
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59844",
      "rights": "Project Gutenberg labels this specific ebook public domain in the USA. Outside the United States, check the law where you are before downloading or reusing the file. The actual file header explicitly gives this instruction; no worldwide clearance is claimed.",
      "sourceId": "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-2",
      "type": "historical-digital-text"
    }
  ],
  "rightsNote": "Project Gutenberg labels this specific ebook public domain in the USA. Outside the United States, check the law where you are before downloading or reusing the file. The actual file header explicitly gives this instruction; no worldwide clearance is claimed. The historical English text’s status does not license Tania Ahsan’s modern introduction, other newly added notes or translations, publisher cover art or contemporary illustrations.",
  "readerNote": "The title’s science reflects Wattles’s own claim about his spiritual method. The resource presents this as a historical belief, not a proven wealth formula, money guarantee, investment strategy or financial advice.",
  "deeper": {
    "themes": [
      {
        "title": "The authority of science",
        "text": "What does calling the method science do for the reader’s trust, and what evidence would that claim require?"
      },
      {
        "title": "Creativity and competition",
        "text": "How does the contrast between creativity and competition shape the book’s moral vision?"
      },
      {
        "title": "Gratitude and metaphysics",
        "text": "What role does gratitude play: attention, obligation, persuasion or metaphysics?"
      }
    ],
    "questions": [
      "How does the contrast between creativity and competition shape the book’s moral vision?",
      "What role does gratitude play: attention, obligation, persuasion or metaphysics?",
      "Which economic or social limits disappear when the explanation centers on individual thought?"
    ]
  },
  "series": null,
  "related": [
    {
      "title": "As a Man Thinketh",
      "url": "/books/as-a-man-thinketh/",
      "why": "Compare the writers’ accounts of purpose and agency."
    },
    {
      "title": "Think and Grow Rich",
      "url": "/books/think-and-grow-rich/",
      "why": "Trace similarities and differences in historical wealth rhetoric."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-1",
      "label": "CiNii Books: 1910 Towne bibliographic record",
      "url": "https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA83500911",
      "type": "Library bibliographic catalog",
      "note": "Author, 1910 Elizabeth Towne publication, Holyoke, LCCN 10009439, original pagination"
    },
    {
      "id": "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-2",
      "label": "Project Gutenberg ebook 59844",
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59844",
      "type": "Digital library catalog and historical primary text",
      "note": "Specific ebook’s author, language, release date and US public-domain designation; title page and preface are in the linked file"
    },
    {
      "id": "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-3",
      "label": "Penguin Random House: Tarcher paperback",
      "url": "https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301913/the-science-of-getting-rich-by-wallace-d-wattles/9781585426010/",
      "type": "Primary publisher",
      "note": "Exact format metadata, companion essay, author dates and New Thought context"
    },
    {
      "id": "the-science-of-getting-rich-source-4",
      "label": "Simon & Schuster: official Sirius distributor record",
      "url": "https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Science-of-Getting-Rich/Wallace-D-Wattles/Arcturus-Classics-for-Financial-Freedom/9781398825895",
      "type": "Official publisher/distributor",
      "note": "Exact hardcover metadata, original/unabridged text status and Tania Ahsan introduction"
    },
    {
      "id": "route-5",
      "label": "Find your library in Libby",
      "url": "https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby",
      "type": "Library discovery route",
      "note": "Search The Science of Getting Rich and Wallace D. Wattles through your participating library. Local licences, borrowing eligibility and availability vary; this does not establish a holding of the selected print ISBN."
    }
  ],
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-03",
  "canonical": "https://pointcast.xyz/books/the-science-of-getting-rich/",
  "artworkProvenance": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/provenance.json",
  "commerce": "External discovery links. Providers determine availability, prices, condition, and library eligibility. No PointCast stock, checkout, payment, or fulfilment.",
  "reproducedBookText": false,
  "quotationsUsed": 0,
  "artworkIsOfficialCover": false
}