Think and Grow Rich! The Original Version, Restored and Revised

Oliver Napoleon Hill was born October 26, 1883, in a two-room log cabin in the mountains of Wise County, Virginia, a region marked by illiteracy and grinding poverty. The gift of a typewriter from his stepmother at age 12 led to a career as a writer, first as a “mountain reporter” for local small-town newspapers, then as a reporter for Bob Taylor’s Magazine, interviewing and writing “success profiles” of famous individuals.

It was in 1908 on such an assignment that Hill met industrialist Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men in the world. That meeting—and almost 30 years of subsequent research by Hill that was suggested and informally sponsored by Carnegie—led to the publication in 1937 of Think and Grow Rich!, one of the best-selling and most influential books of all time.

Hill was the founder of the modern genre of personal success literature. The Think and Grow Rich Philosophy and the success formulas he developed through his research and in his book have helped countless people throughout the world to achieve outstanding success in every aspect of life.

Hill became an informal advisor to two U. S. Presidents, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He would go on to author more than 30 books and textbooks, including Success through a Positive Mental Attitude, written with W. Clement Stone, who began a decade-long collaboration with Hill when the latter was age 69. Hill was a fixture on the motivational lecture circuit and a prolific creator of textbooks, study guides, and other success materials. He founded three magazines—Hill’s Golden Rule in 1919, Napoleon Hill’s Magazine in 1921, and Inspiration Magazine in 1931. He and Stone together founded Success Unlimited magazine in 1954.

Dr. Hill died on November 8, 1970, at his retirement home on Paris Mountain near Greenville, South Carolina, where he spent the last 18 years of his life.

About the Editor

Ross Cornwell is a native South Carolinian. He was educated at Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, and Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. He is a graduate of the Goethe-Institut, Ebersberg, Germany. He has enjoyed two careers—one in public service, working in higher education, and the other in the private sector as a freelance writer/editor and consultant. His background includes stints as a journalist and columnist, and work in public relations, scriptwriting, speechwriting, newsletter publishing, corporate communications, and film criticism, both print and broadcast.

He served as Executive Assistant to the President at Clemson University and later was managing editor of four national circulation newsletters, including Think & Grow Rich Newsletter. Projects and programs he headed won the CASE Grand Award, presented by the Ford Motor Company Fund for the nation’s most outstanding “special public relations project” in higher education, and the Newsweek National First Place Award, presented to the university news and information program judged best in the United States.

He is the author of the chapter on speechwriting for the second edition of the Handbook for Institutional Advancement. A video he wrote—“With the Mind of a Child”—won a 2001 Bronze World Medal at The New York Festivals and a 2002 Silver Screen Award at the 35th Annual U. S. International Film and Video Festival in Los Angeles. He is president and CEO of The Mindpower Institute and of Cornwell Associates, which provides corporate communications services. He has edited or written 10 books and written 35 videos.

Ross Cornwell lives in Clemson, South Carolina, with his wife, Betty Martin Cornwell, a schoolteacher. They have two grown daughters.

You can contact Cornwell at jrcornwell@msn.com or at CornwellAssociates@yahoo.com.