Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 in Virginia and died in 1970 after a long and successful career as a lecturer, an author, and as a consultant to business leaders. Think and Grow Rich is the all-time bestseller in its field, having sold 15 million copies worldwide, and sets the standard for today’s motivational thinking. Born in 1860 in the United States, Wallace D. Wattles popularized New Thought principles in his ground-breaking classics The Science of Getting Rich, The Science of Being Great, and The Science of Being Well. A great influence on future generations of success writers, he died in 1911. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1885, Robert Collier trained to become a priest early in his life, before settling on a career in business, achieving success in the fields of advertising, publishing, and engineering. After recovering from a chronic illness with the help of mental healing, Collier began studying New Thought, metaphysical, and success principles. He distilled these principles into a popular and influential pamphlet series, The Secret of the Ages, in 1926. He began issuing a second pamphlet series called The Secret of Gold in 1927 and completed it the following year under the title The Life Magnet. He died in 1950.