Rev. David Van Bush (1882 - 1959) was an American poet, actor, Congregational pastor and pop psychologist who hired H. P. Lovecraft and James F. Morton to revise many of his writings during the 1920s. His first published book was Peace Poems and Sausages (1915). His books on psychology anticipate what would later become known as the self-help movement[1], including titles such as The Power of Visualization: How to Make Your Dreams Come True (1922), Psychology of Healing (1924), and Psychology of Sex (1924)[2].
Born in Pennsylvania, Bush came from a poor rural background. At the age of six, he moved to Philadelphia and, according to Lovecraft, made a living "selling loads of papers too heavy for him to carry". He later found work as a trick cyclist in a circus, an actor, a preacher, and finally a psychologist. His books and lectures were financially quite successful.
Lovecraft regarded Bush as an unintelligent person who wrote abysmally bad poetry, but also described him as "a harmless, likeable chap" who "means well, and undoubtedly believes much of what he preaches". Bush was also, in Lovecraft's estimation, a capable speaker with good pronunciation (which Lovecraft jokingly attributes to Bush's wife being a former teacher), a "natural orator", a "very fair actor", and "an undeniably efficient organiser and business-man". (HPL: Selected Letters 1.105)