Eternal Progress.
For Men & Women Who Wish to Become Much and Achieve Much.
The Greatest Joy of all Joys, the Joy of Going on / Attainment
1901--1921 Monthly (varies)
Cincinnati, OH, then Chicago, IL, then Los Angeles, CA. Publisher: C.D. Larson; Progress Co. (in Chicago); New Literature Publishing Co. (in Los Angeles). Editor: Christian Daa Larson, editor and publisher. Succeeded by: The Progress Magazine-->Eternal Progress-->Modern Psychology-->New Progress Magazine
1/1, January 1901-1921(?). $1.00 a year. 64 pp (varies up to 98 pp., with half composed of advertising), 7 x 10.

Larson (1874-1954 ) wrote many books, including Poise and Power (1910) and Your Forces and How to Use Them--titles that tell it all. He was the author of what is called "The Optimist's Creed," the statement of belief of that branch of New Thought devoted to unleashing man's latent powers as the path to success. The journal itself is an example of the power of such positive thought. It was begun in Cincinnati, and then followed Larson's peregrinations to the west, changing titles in the process. In June 1909 it became The Progress Magazine because, as Larson later said, "first-class advertisers" would not advertise in a New Thought magazine despite a claim of 200,000 subscribers. In January 1912, apparently after Progress Magazine had gone under, wiping out its investors, Larson restarted Eternal Progress with new volume numbering in Los Angeles, where he published it until 1916 (with occasional issues in 1918). In 1920 Eternal Progress reappeared, only to be replaced in October 1921 by Modern Psychology and then New Progress Magazine. In addition to this sequence of journals, Larson started a variety of New Thought more specialized (devotional, success, children's) New Thought journals: Cosmic World (1908, and restarted in 1912); Efficiency (1912?); The Searchlight (1916). From 1927, Larson was an editor of Ernest Holmes's The Science of Mind.

This journal began as the organ of Larson's optimistic gospel, filled mainly with his own writings, but with the move to Chicago it began to include material (probably by penny-a-word pulp writers) of more general interest (the progress of railroads, the beauties of Chicago, etc.), and to function primarily as a vehicle for general advertising. Up to 47 pages of ads, separately numbered, sandwiched the magazine itself, touting the virtues of quick success schemes ("Would 500% on your money between now and January 1st Interest you?"), books, mail-order instructions, sleep and beauty aids, dubious universities, "The Marvelous Health Vibrator for Man, Woman and Child," Larson's own "Metaphysical Brain Chart" and guaranteed methods of becoming a genius, eugenic schemes, land in the West Indies, methods of restoring eyesight without glasses, growing hair again--and Coca Cola. After the move to California, the journal again carried Larson's own compositions almost exclusively, and tried for a time to raise its price to $3.00 a year in order to dispense with advertising. NYPL microfilm; LOC; Skidmore Library, Lily Dale.

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