Walter Russell
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Walter Bowman Russell (May 19, 1871 – May 19, 1963) was an American impressionist painter, sculptor, and author. Russell wrote extensively on science topics, but his ideas were rejected by scientists.


Life and career

Born in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
on May 19, 1871, to Nova Scotian immigrants, Russell left school at age 9 and went to work, then put himself through the Massachusetts Normal Art School. He interrupted his fourth year to spend three months in Paris at the
Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...
. Biographer Glenn Clark identifies four instructors who prepared him for an art career: Albert Munsell and Ernest Major in Boston,
Howard Pyle Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator, Painting, painter, and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, Wilmington, Delaware, and he spent the last year of his life ...
in Philadelphia, and Jean-Paul Laurens in Paris. In his youth, Russell earned money as a church organist and music teacher, and by conducting a trio in a hotel. Before he left Boston in 1894, Russell married Helen Andrews (1894–1953). They traveled to Paris for their wedding trip and a second term for him at the Académie Julian. After their wedding trip, they settled in New York City in 1894 and had two daughters, Helen and Louise. Russell's rise in New York was immediate; a reporter wrote in 1908, "Mr. Russell came here from Boston and at once became a great artistic success." At age 29, he attracted widespread attention with his allegorical painting ''The Might of Ages'' in 1900. The painting represented the United States at the Turin international exhibition and won several awards. By 1903, Russell had published three children's books (''The Sea Children'', ''The Bending of the Twig'', and ''The Age of Innocence'') and qualified for the Authors Club, which he joined in 1902. Russell made his mark as a builder, creating $30 million worth of
cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
apartments. He is credited with developing "cooperative ownership into an economically sound and workable principle." The Hotel des Artistes on West 67th Street in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, designed by architect George Mort Pollard, has been described as his masterpiece. Russell was also involved in the initial development of Alwyn Court, at Seventh Avenue and 58th Street in Manhattan, but dropped out before the project's completion. In the 1930s, Russell was employed by Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM, as a motivational speaker for IBM employees. He was employed at IBM for twelve years. At age 56 he turned to sculpture and fashioned portrait busts of
Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...
,
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...
, General MacArthur, John Philip Sousa, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Charles Goodyear,
George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swan ...
and others. He rose to top rank as a sculptor. He won the commissions for the ''Mark Twain Memorial'' (1934) and for President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
's '' Four Freedoms Monument'' (1943). Russell became a leader in the Science of Man Movement when he was elected president of the Society of Arts and Sciences in 1927. His seven-year tenure generated many articles in the ''New York Times''. The gold medals awarded by the Society were highly valued. As World War II approached, he moved into a top-floor studio at
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
, where he lived alone (his estranged wife Helen lived in Connecticut). At the time, he was supervising the casting of the ''Four Freedoms.'' This was a low time that required a rejuvenation of his health and spirit. There were reports of his "egotism and self-aggrandizement" that bothered him''.''


Russell's cosmogony

Russell claimed to have experienced a transformational and revelatory event in May 1921, which he later described in a chapter called "The Story of My Illumining" in the 1950 edition of his Home Study Course. "During that period...I could perceive all motion," and was newly "aware of all things." Russell used the terminology of Richard Maurice Bucke in his book '' Cosmic Consciousness'' to explain "cosmic illumination." Later he wrote, "It will be remembered that no one who has ever had he experience of illuminationhas been able to explain it. I deem it my duty to the world to tell of it." This became the subject of his book ''The Divine Iliad'', published in two volumes in 1949. Russell published ''The Universal One'' in 1926, ''The Russell Genero-Radiative Concept'' in 1930, and defended his ideas in the pages of the ''New York Times'' in 1930–1931. He published ''The Secret of Light'' in 1947 and ''A New Concept of the Universe'' in 1953. Russell copyrighted a spiral shaped Periodic Chart of the Elements in 1926. Russell's
cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony is the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used in ref ...
was described in ''A New Concept of the Universe,'' where he wrote that "the cardinal error of science" was "shutting the Creator out of his Creation." Russell never referred to an anthropomorphic god, but rather wrote that "God is the invisible, motionless, sexless, undivided, and unconditioned white Magnetic Light of Mind" which centers all things. "God is provable by laboratory methods," Russell wrote, "The locatable motionless Light which man calls magnetism is the Light which God IS." He wrote that Religion and Science must come together in a New Age.


With Lao Russell at Swannanoa in Virginia 1948–1963

In 1948, at the age of 77, Russell divorced his first wife and married Daisy Stebbing, aged 44, an immigrant from England and former model and businesswoman, amid some controversy. She changed her name to Lao (after Lao-Tzu, the Chinese illuminate) and they embarked on a cross-country automobile trip from Reno looking for a place to establish a workplace and a museum for his work. They discovered Swannanoa, the palatial estate of a railroad magnate, long abandoned, on a mountaintop on the border of Augusta and Nelson Counties in Virginia, and leased the property for 50 years. There they established the museum and the Walter Russell Foundation, and in 1957 the Commonwealth of Virginia granted a charter for the University of Science and philosophy, a correspondence school with a home study course. (In 2014, the charter was grandfathered back to 1948.) The Russells collaborated on a number of books. The testing of atomic bombs in the atmosphere prompted them to publish ''Atomic Suicide?'' in 1957, in which they warned of grave consequences for the planet and humankind if radioactivity was exploited as a world fuel. Walter Russell died in 1963. Lao died in 1988.


Books

*''The Sea Children'', 1901 *''The Bending of the Twig'', 1903 *''The Age of Innocence'', 1904 *''The Universal One'', 1926 *''The Russell Genero-Radiative Concept or The Cyclic Theory of Continuous Motion'', L. Middleditch Co., 1930 *''The Secret of Light'', 1st ed., 1947, 3rd ed., Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1994, *''The Message of the Divine Iliad'', vol. 1, 1948, vol. 2, 1949 *''The Book of Early Whisperings'', 1949 *''The Home Study Course'' (with Lao Russell), 1st ed., 1950–52 *''Scientific Answer to Human Relations'' (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1951 *''A New Concept of the Universe'', Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1953 *''Atomic Suicide?'' (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1957 *''The World Crisis: Its Explanation and Solution'', (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1958 *''The One-World Purpose'' (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1960


References


Further reading

*Binder, Timothy A., ''In the Wave Lies the Secret of Creation'', (contains many unpublished drawings of Walter Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1995,


External links

* *
The University of Science and Philosophy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Walter 1871 births 1963 deaths 20th-century American philosophers 19th-century American philosophers American science writers New Thought writers Writers from Boston 20th-century American painters 20th-century American sculptors American portrait painters 20th-century mystics 19th-century mystics New Thought mystics