Joel Goldsmith was born in New York City on March 10, 1892. Goldsmith's parents, non-practicing Jews, had been married in New York City in 1891 and Joel was their first child. They subsequently had another son two years later followed by a daughter two years after that.
Goldsmith's father became critically ill during a trip to England 1915 and word was sent to the Goldsmith family to come for the body. However, according to Goldsmith, his father was healed by the father of a female friend, a Christian Science practitioner, after more conventional doctors failed.
After serving in the Marines during World War I, Goldsmith went to work in his father's business, developing tuberculosis soon thereafter. As his father before him, Goldsmith was healed by a Christian Science practitioner and in 1928 Goldsmith became an active Christian Scientist, moving to Boston and living across the street from the "mother church".
Goldsmith self-published his most famous work, The Infinite Way, in 1947 based on letters to patients and students, as well as "The Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture."
The writings which followed were transcriptions of his lectures which had been recorded on the first wire recorders in the late 1940s. These were distributed from the Goldsmith Publishing. They were: The Master Speaks, The First, Second, Third San Francisco Lecture Series, Consciousness Unfolding, God the Substance of All Form and Metaphysical Notes. These original books were later republished during Goldsmith's lifetime by publishers in various countries.
As Goldsmith was approached by large publishing houses around the world to produce books of his talks, he enlisted the help of Lorraine Sinkler and her sister Valbourg to edit his books which were generally compiled from various lecture transcripts.
Goldsmith's insistence on "no organization" insured that his message remained a personal journey with leaders naturally evolving from new generations. There is no service, ritual, dogma, ceremony in the practice of The Infinite Way.
Joel Solomon Goldsmith died on Jun 17, 1964, at the Piccadilly Hotel, Westminster, London W1, England. He was cremated at Golders Green in London on June 18, 1964, and his ashes and effects where released to his widow, Emma Goldsmith, to take them back to their home in Hawaii.