Orison Swett Marden

When he was three years old, his mother died at the age of 22, leaving Orison and his two sisters in the care of their father, who was a farmer, hunter, and trapper.

[2] During his early to mid-teens, Marden discovered a book entitled Self-Help by Scottish author Samuel Smiles in an attic.

He developed a deep respect and admiration for the author, whose work instilled in him a desire to inspire others as Samuel Smiles had done for him.

Margaret Connolly, a contemporary who worked for Marden's publishing firm in the early 1900s, describes the incident of the hotel fire, his narrow escape from death, and the loss of his original manuscript, which he later re-wrote and entitled Pushing to the Front.

[7] Pushing to the Front (1894) became the single greatest runaway classic in the history of personal development books at that time.

In summing up the scope and impact of Marden's first literary effort, Connolly states that "[t]wo hundred and fifty editions of Pushing to the Front have so far [in 1925] been published in this country alone.

[9] For his magazine, Marden wrote articles that focused on self-culture, personal development and principles of success.

[10] Notable public figures included the late president Teddy Roosevelt, the poet Julia Ward Howe, inventors Thomas Alva Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, and leading industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.

During this time he served as the first president of the early New York City-based New Thought organization League for the Larger Life.

In addition to Samuel Smiles, Marden cited as influences on his thinking the works of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and Ralph Waldo Emerson, both of whom were influential forerunners of what, by the 1890s, was called the New Thought Movement.

"[16] Yet although he is best known for his books on financial success, he always emphasized that this would come as a result of cultivating one's personal development: "The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself.

Other interests include literature, history, philosophy, biography, fine art, education, psychology, and physical health.

Objects or scenes observable in nature such as rocks, marbles, streams, trees, snows, and tempests imparted a sublime, poetic depth to his writing: All eleven articles listed are grouped into one Kindle eBook file from Amazon.com under the heading, "After Failure, What?"