Charles F. Haanel

Charles F. Haanel (1866-1949)

Charles F. Haanel was a noted American author and businessman who belonged to the American Scientific League, The Author’s League of America, The American Society of Psychical Research, the St. Louis Humane Society and the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Charles F. Haanel began his business career in St. Louis. He resigned his position in order to start his own company and eventually founded one of the largest conglomerates of his time.

He wrote several books which were published in St. Louis by Psychology Publishing and by his Master Key Institute in New York. Mr. Haanel put into books the ideas and methods he used to gain his success. Besides the "Master Key System," which he wrote in 1912, he also wrote "Mental Chemistry" and "The New Psychology"

By 1933 The Master Key System had sold over 200,000 copies and then seemingly disappeared. The Master Key System is one of the finest studies in self-improvement, mind-stuff, and higher consciousness ever written. Covering everything from how to get wealthy to how to get healthy, Mr. Haanel leaves no stone unturned. With precision, he elucidates on each topic with logic and rigor that not only leaves you feeling good, but also thinking good. The book was banned by the Church in 1933 and has been hidden away for seventy years!

Rumor has it that while he was attending Harvard University, Bill Gates discovered and read The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel. It was this book that inspired Bill Gates to drop out of the University and pursue his dream of "a computer on every desktop." You probably know the results. . .

It is Silicon Valley's secret that almost every entrepreneur who made a fortune in recent years did so by studying the words Mr. Haanel penned over eighty years ago! Almost every millionaire and billionaire in the Valley read The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel. Since this book was no longer in print until recently, copies of The Master Key System became a hot commodity in the Valley.

The Master Key System is a system that teaches the ultimate principles, causes, effects, and laws that underlie all attainment and success. When you want to attain something, The Master Key System will show you how to get it. The results you will attain from using this system are so startling as to appear incredible. For this reason, more and more people are becoming students of The Master Key System than ever before

In 24 parts, The Master Key sets out the fundamental principles of life and creative living, as Haanel came to understand and apply them. Basic to his teaching is the correct development and use of mental power -- the key to truly creative power and action, harmony and health, love and happiness, and abundant possibilities. Each part is meant to be studied like a correspondence course lesson, but this is also a book that can be opened at random for whatever gem of advice your eyes happen to fall upon.

This age-old wisdom was written by someone who could perceive and tap into Universal Mind but who seems to have no particular allegiance to any specific system of knowledge. Haanel's numbered common-sense messages still have a freshness 89 years after they were first assembled.

Mr. Haanel died in 1949 and is buried in Bellafontaine Cemetery, St. Louis. Walter B. Stevens described Mr. Haanel as "a man of mature judgement, capable of taking a calm survey of life and correctly valuing its opportunities, its possibilities, its demands and obligations."