The Master Key System

Haanel's book "The Master Key System" was published in 1912 when he was 46 years old. It is written in the form of a course in New Thought, mental development, financial success, and personal health. The book was heavily promoted in the pages of Elizabeth Towne's New Thought magazine The Nautilus. By 1933 it had allegedly sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. Haanel practiced the financial principles he preached and was a self-made success who owned several major companies. According to Walter B. Stevens, the author of In St. Louis: History of the Fourth City, "He (Mr. Haanel) was president of the Continental Commercial Company, president of the Sacramento Valley Improvement Company, and president of the Mexico Gold & Silver Mining Company."