Prentice Mulford

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Prentice Mulford

Prentice Mulford (born April 5, 1834 in Sag Harbor , New York , † May 27, 1891 in Long Island ) was an American journalist , philosopher and writer who is considered one of the most important representatives of the new spirit movement .

Mulford died at the age of 57, drifting alone in a sailboat off Long Island. He previously stated that he wanted to travel by boat to Sag Harbor, which today belongs to the "region of the Hamptons ", more precisely in the area of ​​the cities of East Hampton and Southampton there .

Life

Prentice Mulford, whose parents of German descent owned a hotel in Sag Harbor, was born in the town of the same name on April 5, 1834. His grandmother promoted his love for nature. With her he learned the German language. His father died when Mulford was 14 years old. From now on he gave himself up to drinking regularly. At 17 he left his home and was hired as a sailor. In the following years he earned his living as a ship cook and whale catcher. He realized that alcohol was destroying his free will (in his opinion the “highest thing in man”) and decided to stop drinking.

In 1857 Mulford ended his career at sea and went to California , where he spent the next 16 years. There he earned his living as a gold digger. But this occupation did not satisfy him either; In 1863 he settled in Sonora , Tuolumne County . When he, encouraged by his partner, began to publish humorous stories under the pseudonym "Dogberry" in the Union Democrate , he gained a certain prominence among the gold diggers there. Over time, he was active as an educator, petroleum dealer and sheriff . With the development of the first petroleum sources in Pennsylvania in 1858 and the associated conflicts, Mulford met John D. Rockefeller , whom he deplored and disapproved of because of his material attitude.

In 1866, Mulford was called to San Francisco by Joseph E. Lawrence , editor of the Golden Era . He has now written short stories for the Golden Era , a weekly newspaper with a literary focus, and made first contacts with representatives of American literature at the time, such as Mark Twain , Artemus Ward and Adah Isaacs Menken .

After the sheet was sold, Mulford also left it and from then on wrote occasionally for the Dramatic Chronicle in Stockton , which he was editor of for a few months in 1868. He had to give up this position for health reasons. He went to San Francisco to work as a freelance journalist. Here Mulford began his collaboration with the San Francisco Bulletin .

For financial reasons he tried in 1872 to make a name for himself as a “ propagator ” for the merchants of the gold rush town. He was finally sent to England to report on California's merits and to warn of the bad influence of the monopoly Rockefeller.

On a trip to the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873, where he was able to communicate well thanks to his knowledge of German, he met Maria Berka, who joined him and followed him to San Francisco. However, Maria Berka later married Teddy Burton, a friend of Mulford's, as she saw no future in her relationship with Mulford. At first he worked as a freelance writer and as a Sunday preacher, but was no longer able to pursue this activity after a confrontation with the church.

In July 1876, Mulford was a correspondent for the San Francisco Bulletin in Philadelphia at the exhibition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence . In 1877 he got a permanent job at New York Graphic , where he established the daily History of the Day column , which was instrumental in the newspaper's success. For the San Francisco Bulletin , Mulford traveled to Paris in 1878, where he met the wholesaler J. Morgan, who informed him about the personality of Rockefeller. Thus, in Morgan's view, Rockefeller saw his success as a grace from God. Mulford managed to convince Morgan of his spiritual ideology and win him over as an adept and patron .

He returned to New York and saw his texts censored by the editor-in-chief of Graphic because of economic and political criticism. After six years of permanent employment, his health was so bad that he emigrated to the New Jersey swamps to live in a tree house. Still employed at Graphic , he began one of his best-known works here: a series of essays under the umbrella term White Cross Library ( Library of the White Cross ). The collection appeared later than Your forces and how to use them ( your forces and their use ). He only managed to finance the publication of the first 1,000 books with difficulty. Contrary to the usual practice, Mulford refrained from selling it through publishers or promoting it through advertising. His works were only spread through word of mouth. The series was soon very successful, three years after the first edition, Mulford was able to draw a positive balance: "We are now being read in all parts of the world."

Success pushed him to return to New York. In early 1891, Mulford traveled to his childhood home, Sag Harbor. When he wanted to travel to Sag Harbor by sailboat again in May of that year, he died on the crossing. He was found drifting offshore in his sailing boat, wrapped in blankets.

German-language editions of works

Selection, free editing and translation of the essays: Bertha Eckstein-Diener

  • 1913 The mischief of life. on-line
  • 1919 The mischief of dying. on-line
  • 1925 The end of nonsense. on-line

Appreciation

Sir Galahad: "Prentice Mulford is a saint" full of go ", one of the race of Johannes V. Jensen , a navigator of the spiritual oceans, one who sees the spiritual cosmos as bright as day, with such hawks like Jensen on our earth! He is the genius of irreverence! His wisdom grows wild like a thorn bush - the burning bush of his wisdom! He never gets secondhand knowledge. If our Lord Jesus Christ wanted to involve him in a longer revelation, he would perhaps politely, in any case resolutely, refuse and would prefer to get his information directly from God. "

literature

  • Leonore Bazinek:  Prentice Mulford. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 18, Bautz, Herzberg 2001, ISBN 3-88309-086-7 , Sp. 943-951.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Prentice Mulford: The Possibility of the Impossible. EP Tal & Co.-Verlag, Vienna 1918.
  • Prentice Mulford: Mischief of Life and Death , reprinted by Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag (November 14, 2011), ISBN 978-3596218905
  • Prentice Mulford: Thoughts Are Real , CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (June 29, 2014), ISBN 978-1500351311
  • Schmidt, Karl O .: One who dares: Life u. Work d. Prentice Mulford , Pfullingen: Baum-Verl. , 1961, 3rd edition
  • Prentice Mulford: Das Ende des Nfugs , Selected essays by Prentice Mulford, edited very freely and translated from English by Sir Galahad, Albert Langen Munich, 1st to 10th thousand

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mulford, Prentice (1834-1891). In: answers.com .
  2. ↑ Cf. Leonore Bazinek:  MULFORD, Prentice. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 18, Bautz, Herzberg 2001, ISBN 3-88309-086-7 , Sp. 943-951.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  3. ↑ Sir Galahad: Preface. In: Prentice Mulford: mischief of life and death. Translated from English and edited by Sir Galahad. Goverts Krüger Stahlberg-Verlag, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-7740-6247 , p. 11.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mulford, Prentice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and representative of the New Spirit movement
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Sag Harbor , New York
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 1891
Place of death off Long Island