Hamilton (“Ham”) Priday received his baccalaureate in biology/chemistry from Ursinus College in 1953, taking courses in logic and philosophy as electives. On completing his military obligation to the Korean War, he studied music theory and arranging at the Philadelphia Conservatory before launching a 30-year career in technical writing and industrial advertising.

Priday continued to explore the works of major philosophers throughout his business career, but found their answers to the enigma of existence unfulfilling. The dualistic reality of classical philosophy didn’t add up to a meaningful whole, while the ‘New Agers’ were determined to destroy all that had gone before and reduce man to a neuro-physical anomaly. Only the Eastern mystics seemed to have a handle on reality, but they had no metaphysical cosmology that could translate their Oneness concept for the Western analytical mind. In what the author describes as "an evolving epiphany", he began to realize that there was an element of reality that the traditional schools of philosophy had overlooked. He called it Value and began working on a valuistic thesis that links the subjective self to its objective reality. By 1990 he had set the central premises in manuscript form.

In 2002, Priday opted for early retirement so that he could devote more time to the development of his philosophy. In addition to creating a website promoting Essentialism, he decided to rework his manuscript for a general audience. This has culminated in a self-published book, which the author believes lays the groundwork for a value-based philosophy that can foster an “authentic society”. Says Priday: "The value of your life is not determined by an authority acting as proxy on your behalf or by the collective intellect of mankind. You are essentially what you as an individual value in your relationship with reality. Whether you are concerned with Essence as your ultimate reality or not, Essence ultimately is concerned with you.”