Webster Edgerly

Albert Webster Edgerly (December 20, 1852 – November 5, 1926) was a 19th and 20th century American social reform activist. He believed in involuntary racial euthanasia programs, a healthy diet and personal magnetism. He created the pseudoscientific Ralstonism movement.

Personal life Born December 20, 1852 in Salem, Massachusetts to Rhoda Lucinda Stone and John Foss Edgerly, he graduated from the Boston University School of Law in 1876. That same year he founded the Ralston Health Club. He married Edna Reed Boyts on July 5, 1892, in McConnellsville, Pennsylvania. 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, and his wife sold the property the following year.

Self-help and religious writings Under the pseudonym Edmund Shaftesbury, Edgerly was a prolific author of self-help and utopian 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, and curmudgeonly attacks on modern society." He also dabbled unsuccessfully in real-estate speculation and the theater, and invented a language called "Adam-Man Tongue" that was "nothing more than a bizarre-looking version of English." When William Danforth of animal feeds maker Purina Mills began making a breakfast cereal 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.

Personal beliefs Edgerly saw his followers as the founding members of a new race, based on Caucasians, being free from "impurities". He advocated for the castration of all "anti-racial" (non-Caucasian) males at birth.

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 [Hopewell, 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