Think and Grow Rich
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Think and Grow Rich | |
 Original Hardcover |
|
| Author | Napoleon Hill |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Personal-success |
| Publisher | The Ralston Society |
| Publication date | 1937 |
| Media type | print (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 1592802605 |
Think and Grow Rich is a motivational book written by Napoleon Hill and inspired by a suggestion by Scottish-American billionaire Andrew Carnegie. It was published in 1937 during the Great Depression.[1] It remains the biggest seller of Napoleon Hill's books, selling a claimed 30 million copies over the next 70 years (although Alice Payne Hackett's 70 Years of Best Sellers suggests the figure was lower).[2]
Contents |
[edit] Content
The text of Think and Grow Rich! is founded on Hill's earlier work The Law of Success, the result of more than twenty years of research based on Hill's close association with a large number of individuals who achieved great wealth during their lifetimes.[1]
At Andrew Carnegie's bidding, Hill studied the characteristics of these achievers and developed 15 "laws" of success intended to be applied by anybody to achieve success. Think and Grow Rich! condenses these laws further and provides the reader with 13 principles in the form of a philosophy of personal achievement.[1]
[edit] Variant editions
The first edition of Think and Grow Rich was released in March 1937. Only 5,000 copies were printed. Despite advertising for the book being mostly word of mouth, the original prints were sold out in six weeks at a price of $2.50 each. Another 10,000 copies were printed to meet demand, all of which also sold out in six weeks. The third print totaled 20,000.[3]
Since its publication in 1937, Think and Grow Rich has been reprinted, revised, edited, abridged, updated and even rewritten multiple times in many different languages and incarnations by many different publishers.[original research?] WorldCat alone lists over 120 editions.[4][unreliable source?]
In 2004, Ross Cornwell published Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised (ISBN 1-59330-200-2), which restored the book to its original content, with slight revisions, and added the first comprehensive endnotes, index, and appendix the book has ever contained. This version went into a third printing in 2008.[5]
In 2004 an abridged text was published in a version titled Think and Grow Rich: The 21st-Century Edition: Revised and Updated (ISBN 1-932429-23-9). It was published by High Roads Media. In this version, author/editor Bill Hartley introduces modern examples of Hill's principles combined with editorial commentary throughout the book. Some readers have expressed negative opinions of this presentation, saying the modern examples are unnecessary, and the injection of outside commentary disrupts the flow of Napoleon Hill's original text.[6][unreliable source?]
[edit] See also
- Napoleon Hill
- Andrew Carnegie
- Law of Attraction
- Wallace Wattles
- The Science of Getting Rich
- List of best-selling books
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c A Lifetime of Riches: The Biography of Napoleon Hill, Michael J. Ritt and Kirk Landers (Revised Edition 1995) (ISBN 0-525-94146-0)
- ^ Lingeman, Richard, "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People". The New York Times, August 13, 1995, accessed 2008-04-28.
- ^ Don Green. (2008). The Next Chapter in Personal Development [digital video]. The Napoleon Hill Foundation, The Millionaire Mentor Corp.
- ^ WorldCat.org, Think and Grow Rich, accessed 2009-04-04.
- ^ Hill, N.: "Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised", page xi. Aventine Press, 2004; third edition, 2008
- ^ Amazon.com, Think and Grow Rich: The 21st-Century Edition: Revised and Updated reviews, accessed 2009-04-04
[edit] Further reading
- A Lifetime of Riches: The Biography of Napoleon Hill, Michael J. Ritt and Kirk Landers (Revised Edition 1995) (ISBN 0-525-94146-0)
- "Rich Man, Poor Man: The Story of Napoleon Hill", JM Emmert, Success magazine, January 6 2009.
- "Think and Grow Rich", a commentary in 50 Success Classics: Winning Wisdom for Work and Life from 50 Landmark Books by Tom Butler-Bowdon (2004), London & Boston: Nicholas Brealey (ISBN 978-1-85788-333-6), Chapter 23.
[edit] External links
- Think and Grow Rich. Easy Navigation Version.
