Author
In 1872, Widney helped to found the Los Angeles Library Association, and served on its board of governors for the next six years. Along with Jonathan T. Warner (1807–1895) (better known as J.J. Warner) and Judge Benjamin Hayes (1815–1877), Widney wrote and edited the first history of Los Angeles County, the so-called Centennial History of Los Angeles, published in 1876. In 1888, he collaborated with Dr. Walter Lindley (1852–1922), the founder of the California Hospital Medical Center, in producing California of the South, one of the first tourist guides promoting the region. Both of these volumes were produced to extol the benefits of California and its climate. They were commercially available and were popular.
Also from Widney's prolific pen came many books, pamphlets, and magazine and newspaper articles upon various topics – industrial, racial, scientific, climatic, professional, historical, political, educational, national, international, and religious. He discussed such topics as the League of Nations and its shortcomings; judicial reform (he advocated trials by judges rather than juries for criminal cases); and the future of modern civilizations. With the exception of his two-volume magnum opus, Race Life of the Aryan Peoples, published in 1907 by Funk and Wagnall, Widney chose to have all his other writings published at his own expense and donated to influential people, personal friends, and libraries and other public reading rooms to ensure maximum availability of his ideas.
Widney revealed in his Civilizations and Their Diseases (1937),
I have never written for money. The sole object has been the carving out of broader lines for the human race. For more than fifty years of careful historical study, I have thought, and planned, and worked to this end. This ultimate purpose has run through all my publications.
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