Albert Webster Edgerly (1852 – 1926) was a 19th and 20th century American social reform activist. He believed in
euthanasia
Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering.
Different countries have different eut ...
programs, a
healthy diet
A healthy diet is a diet that maintains or improves overall health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients such as protein, micronutrients such as vitamins, and adequate fibre and food energy.
A heal ...
, and the power of
personal magnetism, and began the
Ralstonism movement as a way to live out this lifestyle.
Personal life
Born in
to Rhoda Lucinda Stone and John Foss Edgerly, he graduated from the
Boston University School of Law
Boston University School of Law (Boston Law or BU Law) is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top law schools in the United States and considered an el ...
in 1876. That same year he founded the Ralston Health Club. He married Edna Reed Boyts on July 5, 1892, in McConnellsville,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
. He practiced law in Boston, Kansas, and Washington, D.C. In 1896 he began living eight months of the year at Ralston Heights, New Jersey, in what is known as Hopewell.
He died November 5, 1926, in
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city, capital city (New Jersey), city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784. , and his wife sold the property the following year.
Self-help and religious writings
Under the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Edmund Shaftesbury, Edgerly was a prolific author of
self-help
Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...
and
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...
n religious texts, producing over 100 books, most of them "official" books to buy as a member of the Ralston Health Club. A recent critique described the books as "chock-full of racist rants, naive
pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...
, and curmudgeonly attacks on modern society."
He also dabbled unsuccessfully in real-estate
speculation
In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline in value.)
Many ...
and the theater, and
invented a language called "Adam-Man Tongue" that was "nothing more than a bizarre-looking version of English."
One of his books, ''Life Building Method of the Ralston Health Club'', endorsed the consumption of whole grain cereal. When
William Danforth
William H. Danforth (September 10, 1870 – December 24, 1955) was an American businessman known for founding Ralston Purina in St. Louis, Missouri in 1894. He was a co-founder of the American Youth Foundation (AYF) and the author of the book, ...
of animal feeds maker
Purina Mills began making a
breakfast cereal
Cereal, formally termed breakfast cereal (and further categorized as cold cereal or warm cereal), is a traditional breakfast food made from processed cereal grains. It is traditionally eaten as part of breakfast, or a snack food, primarily in ...
similar to the kind described in the book in 1898, he sought and received the endorsement of Edgerly to market Ralston breakfast cereal. Ralston cereal became so successful that in 1902 Purina Mills was renamed
Ralston-Purina.
The breakfast cereal operations evolved into
Ralcorp
Ralcorp Holdings is a manufacturer of various food products, including breakfast cereal, cookies, crackers, chocolate, snack foods, mayonnaise, pasta, and peanut butter. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The majority of the items Ralc ...
.
Works
*
The Ralston brain regime : presenting a course of conduct, exercises and study, designed to develop perfect health in the physical brain, strengthen the mind, and increase the power of thought : a book of practice, more than theory' Washington, D.C. : Martyn College Press, 1891
*
The Shaftesbury school of philosophy known as the story of our existences or the doctrine of diversity' Washington, D.C., Shaftesbury college, 1894
*
Companion book of complete membership in the Ralston Health Club : in seventeen departments ; being a complete study of the natural causes and the natural cures of disease, without medicines or apparatus of any kind' Washington, D.C. : Martyn College Press Association, 1895
*
Cultivation of the chest' Washington, D.C. : Martyn College Press, 1895
*
Book of general membership of the Ralston Health Club' 7th ed. Washington, Martyn College Press Assoc., 1898
*
Book of the Psychic Society: A Study of the Fourteen Unseen Powers That Control Human Life; and Containing Immortality, A Scientific Demonstration of Life After Death' Washington: Ralston University Pub. Co., 1908
*
Life building method of the Ralston health club'
opewell, N.J.Issued by the Ralston health club 1920
*
Instantaneous Personal Magnetism: Combining an Absolutely New Method with the Best Established Teachings of the Past' 14th edition enlarged; Manchester, UK: Psychology Pub. Co., 1935
*A study of the unseen powers that control human life, 1908
*Advanced Magnetism, 1906
*Book of the mind and thought society, 1911
*Brain tests, 1924
*Child life, 1897
*Complete membership in the Ralston health club, 1892
*Cultivation of Personal Magnetism in Seven Progressive Steps: The Exercise...
*Edgerly natural reader, 1912
*Future seeing and destiny, 1912
*GREAT PSYCHIC: The Master Power of the Universe
*Higher magnetism
*How to Get Rid of Sickness: Ralston Classic No. One
*How to make personality pay; an introduction to the study of personal...
Immortality 1898
*Lessons in artistic deep breathing for strengthening the voice, 1888
*Lessons in emphasis, 1893
*Lessons in grace, 1889
*Lessons in the art of extemporaneous speaking, 1889
*Lessons in the art of facial expression, 1889
*Lessons in the art of ventriloquism, 1891
*Lessons in the mechanics of personal magnetism, 1888
*Lessons in voice culture, 1891
*Lessons on acting, 1889
*Life Electricity
*Life's secrets revealed
*Mental Magnetism: a Study of the Seven Realms of Mind and Mastery in the Conflicts of Life, 1924
*One hundred lessons in punctuation, 1893
*One hundred points of character, 1892
*Operations of the Other Mind: Making Known the Unseen Powers of the...
*Personal magnetism
*Private Lessons in the Cultivation of Magnetism of the Sexes
*Ralston gardens, 1900
*Ralston's simplified physiology, 1892
*Real life, when things are right, 1903
*Right, 1923
*Sex magnetism, 1910
*Shaftesbury's secrets
*Solution of life, 1916
*The Adam-man tongue, 1903
*The authority dictionary, 1891
*The book of books, 1897
*The Book of Shaftesbury's Secrets: Disclosing Priceless Methods for...
*The goal of creation, a constructive course in human progress within the temple of great achievements, 1920
*The greatest things in human life, 1915
*The natural reader, 1891
*The new education, 1900
*The origin of man, 1925
*The Other Mind: Including The Science Of All Phenomena And The Practice Of all forms of human control of others, 1909
*The Ralston health club, 1893
*The Shaftesbury recitations, 1889
*The two hundred year club, 1893
*The two sexes, 1898
*Thought Transference; or, The Radio-Activity of the Human Mind
*Transference of thought, 1896
*Universal magnetism; a private training course in the magnetic control of others, by the most powerful of all known methods, 1924
*Yourself behind closed doors
References
Further reading
* Six, Janet. "Hidden History of Ralston Heights: The Story of New Jersey's Failed 'Garden of Eden.'" ''Archaeology'' (Vol 57, No 3), p. 30-35.
External links
''Instantaneous Personal Magnetism'' by Webster Edgerly at archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edgerly, Webster
1852 births
1926 deaths
American health and wellness writers
Ralston Purina
Boston University School of Law alumni
19th-century American writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
Pseudoscientific diet advocates