Orison Swett Marden

Orison Swett Marden (1848–1924) was an American writer on success and self-improvement and the founder of Success magazine. Orphaned at seven in New Hampshire and hired out as a farm laborer, he worked his way through Boston University and Harvard, then ran hotels until a fire destroyed his property and the manuscript of his first book. He rewrote it as Pushing to the Front, published in 1894, which went through many editions and translations. He produced some fifty further books, among them How to Succeed, The Secret of Achievement and Peace, Power and Plenty, and is counted among the founders of the American self-help tradition.