View source for Napoleon Hill

{{short description|American author}}
{{for multi|the Memphis businessman|Napoleon Hill (Memphis businessman)|the Lithuanian landmark|Napoleon's Hill|the hill in Israel|Tel Gerisa}}
{{pp-pc1|small=yes}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| image         = Napoleon Hill headshot.jpg
| imagesize     =
| alt           = Photograph of head of young man clad in white shirt, jacket and tie.
| caption       = Hill in 1904
| pseudonym     =
| birth_name    = Oliver Napoleon Hill
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1883|10|26}}
| birth_place   = [[Pound, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1970|11|8|1883|10|26}}
| death_place   = [[Greenville, South Carolina]], U.S.
| occupation    = [[Author]], [[journalist]], [[salesman]], [[lecturer]]
| education     =
| alma_mater    =
| genre         = [[Non-fiction]], [[self-help]]
| yearsactive   = 1928–1970
| subject       =
| movement      =
| notableworks  = ''[[Think and Grow Rich]]'' <small>(1937)</small><br>''[[The Law of Success]]'' <small>(1928)</small><br>''[[Outwitting the Devil]]'' <small>(1938)</small>
| spouse        = {{plainlist}} 
*Unknown (1898 or 1899) 
*Edith Whitman (1903–1908)
*Florence Elizabeth Horner (1910–1935) 
*Rosa Lee Beeland (1937–1940?)
*Annie Lou Norman (1943–1970)
{{endplainlist}}
| partner       =
| children      = 4+
| relatives     =
| awards        =
| signature     = Napoleon Hill signature.svg
| signature_alt = signature of Napoleon Hill
| portaldisp    = y
}}

'''Oliver Napoleon Hill''' (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American [[self-help]] author. He is best known for his book ''[[Think and Grow Rich]]'' (1937), which is among the best-selling self-help books of all time.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IZtRAAAAIBAJ&pg=1457,1795947|title=The Milwaukee Sentinel - Google News Archive Search}}{{dead link|date=March 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/0426/10-best-self-help-books-of-all-time/Think-and-Grow-Rich-by-Napolean-Hill |title=10 Best Self Help Books of All Time |newspaper=Christian Science Monitor |last=Driscoll |first=Molly |date=April 26, 2015 |access-date=March 25, 2017}}</ref> Hill's works insisted that fervid expectations are essential to improving one's life.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Larry |last=Chang |title=Wisdom for the Soul |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_-T3QhPjIxhIC |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_-T3QhPjIxhIC/page/n514 514] |date=2006 |publisher=Gnosophia Publishers |isbn=978-0-9773391-0-5 |access-date=September 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hill |first=Napoleon |title=Think and Grow Rich |location=Chicago, Illinois |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0qAh2gHd4YC&q=Think+and+Grow+Rich |publisher=Combined Registry Company |year=1937 |isbn=1-60506-930-2 |postscript=. A similar quote regarding Thomas Edison is on page 230.}}</ref>  Most of his books are promoted as expounding principles to achieve "success".

Hill is a controversial figure. Accused of fraud, modern historians also doubt many of his claims, such as that he met [[Andrew Carnegie]] and that he was an attorney.

==Life and career==
===Childhood===
Hill was born in a one-room cabin near the [[Appalachia]]n town of [[Pound, Virginia|Pound]] in [[southwest Virginia]].<ref>[http://www.naphill.org/about-napoleon-hill/ About Napoleon Hill] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727110858/http://www.naphill.org/about-napoleon-hill/ |date=July 27, 2011 }}, The Napoleon Hill Foundation. {{anchor|NHF}}</ref> His parents were James Monroe Hill and Sarah Sylvania (Blair), and he was the grandson of James Madison Hill and Elizabeth (Jones). His grandfather came to the United States from England and settled in southwestern Virginia in 1847.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LToOAQAAMAAJ|title=The National Cyclopædia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time|first1=George|last1=Derby|first2=James Terry|last2=White|year=1977 |publisher=J. T. White|via=Google Books}}</ref> His father was a [[dentist]], at first unofficially and then with a license.<ref name="Lingeman" />

Hill's mother died when he was nine years old, and his father remarried two years later to Martha. According to Landers and Ritt his stepmother was a good influence for him: "Hill's stepmother, the widow of a school principal, civilized the wild-child, Napoleon, making him go to school and attend church."<ref name="Lingeman" /> At the age of 13, Hill began writing as a "mountain reporter", initially for his father's newspaper.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5-4AAAAIAAJ&q=A+Lifetime+of+Riches|title=A Lifetime of Riches|last2=Landers|first2=Kirk|date=July 1, 1995|publisher=Dutton Book |isbn=0525941460|page=23 |last1=Ritt|first1=Michael}}</ref> At the age of fifteen, he married a local girl who had accused him of fathering her child; the girl later recanted the claim, and the marriage was [[Annulment|annulled]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ritt|first1=Michael|last2=Landers|first2=Kirk|title=A Lifetime of Riches|date=July 1, 1995 |publisher=Dutton Book|isbn=0525941460|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5-4AAAAIAAJ&q=A+Lifetime+of+Riches|page=17}}</ref>

===Early career===
At the age of seventeen, Hill graduated from high school and moved to [[Tazewell, Virginia]], to attend [[business school]]. In 1901, Hill accepted a job working for the lawyer [[Rufus A. Ayers]], a coal magnate and former [[Attorney General of Virginia|Virginia attorney general]]. Author Richard Lingeman wrote that Hill received this job after arranging to keep confidential the death of a black [[bellhop]] whom the previous manager of the mine had accidentally shot while drunk.<ref name="Lingeman">{{cite news|last1=Lingeman|first1=Richard|title=How to Lose Friends and Alienate People|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/13/books/how-to-lose-friends-and-alienate-people.html?pagewanted=all|access-date=31 January 2017 |newspaper=New York Times|date=August 13, 1995|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161208192722/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/13/books/how-to-lose-friends-and-alienate-people.html?pagewanted=all|archivedate=December 8, 2016}}</ref>

Hill left his coal mine management job soon afterward and enrolled in [[law school]] before withdrawing owing to a lack of funds. Later in life, Hill would use the title of "Attorney of Law", although Hill's official biography notes that "there is no record of his having actually performed legal services for anyone."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ritt|first1=Michael|last2=Landers|first2=Kirk|title=A Lifetime of Riches|date= July 1, 1995|publisher=Dutton Book |isbn=0525941460|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5-4AAAAIAAJ&q=A+Lifetime+of+Riches |page=46}}</ref>

In 1903, Hill married for the second time to Edith Whitman; in 1905 their child Edith Whitman Hill was born. Their marriage was a fraught one due to Hill's alleged abuse of his wife and daughter in addition to his infidelity.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Novak |first=Matt |date=December 6, 2016 |title=The Untold Story of Napoleon Hill, the Greatest Self-Help Scammer of All Time |url=https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-untold-story-of-napoleon-hill-the-greatest-self-he-1789385645 |access-date=2019-08-13 |website=Paleofuture (Gizmodo) |language=en-US |archive-date=January 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210105130410/https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-untold-story-of-napoleon-hill-the-greatest-self-he-1789385645 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Failed business ventures and charges of fraud ===
Hill relocated to [[Mobile, Alabama]], in 1907 and co-founded the Acree-Hill Lumber Company. In October 1908, the ''[[Pensacola Journal]]'' reported that the company was facing bankruptcy proceedings and charges of [[Mail and wire fraud|mail fraud]] for purchasing lumber from outside Mobile, from other counties in Alabama and Florida, and selling it below cost, thereby failing to generate a return.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Pensacola Journal |location=Pensacola, Florida |date=October 17, 1908 |title=President of Lumber Company Is Missing |via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062268/1908-10-17/ed-1/seq-3/ }}</ref> 

His wife Edith filed for divorce in 1908; at the proceedings Hill's friends and business partners testified to his affairs with prostitutes. It is sometime in 1908 that Hill claims his pivotal conversation with [[Andrew Carnegie]] happened; however, the existence of such a meeting is a point of contention amongst Hill biographers.<ref name=":0" />

Following the exposure of his fraud in Alabama, Hill fled to Washington, DC, where he dropped Oliver as his first name and began going by Napoleon Hill. In 1909 he founded the Automobile College of Washington. The college assembled cars for the Carter Motor Corporation, which declared bankruptcy in early 1912; students were not paid for their labor.<ref name=":0"/> During April 1912, the automobile magazine ''[[Motor World]]'' accused Hill's college of being a scam and derided its marketing materials as "a joke to anyone of average intelligence".<ref>{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qyQfAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA39 |chapter=Pointing the Easy Route to GETRICHQUICKLAND |title=Motor World Wholesale |volume=31 |date=April 12, 1912 |publisher=Chilton Company  |pages=39–41 }}</ref> Following the bankruptcy of the Carter Motor Corporation, Hill pivoted the organization to teaching people how to sell cars rather than make them. Students were incentivized to themselves sell Automobile College of Washington courses on which they would earn a commission. In practice, the focus was on signing up more students, not in learning how to sell cars. In this form, it resembled a modern [[ multi-level marketing]] company.<ref name=":0"/>

In June 1910, Hill married Florence Elizabeth Horner,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifetimeofriches00mich|url-access=registration|title=A lifetime of riches: the biography of Napoleon Hill|last1=Ritt|first1=Michael J.|last2=Landers|first2=Kirk|date=July 1, 1995 |publisher=Dutton Book |isbn=9780525941460|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifetimeofriches00mich/page/35 35]}}</ref> with whom he had three sons: James, born in 1911; Napoleon Blair, born in 1912; and David, born in 1918.<ref name=Emmert2009>{{cite web |url=http://www.success.com/article/rich-man-poor-man |title=Rich Man, Poor Man |last=Emmert |first=J. M. |date=January 5, 2009 |work=Success |access-date=25 March 2017}}</ref> Hill would postpone their [[honeymoon]] until 1919.<ref name= "Fortune" /> Horner was in high school when they met and was from a wealthy West Virginia family. Despite investment from her family, the Automobile College of Washington closed in 1912. He subsequently moved to [[Chicago]] and accepted a job with the [[La Salle Extension University]], before co-founding the Betsy Ross Candy Shop. Hill was soon forced out of the candy shop by his partners and had left La Salle within a year of starting.<ref name=":0"/> 

In September 1915, he established the George Washington Institute of Advertising, where he intended to teach principles of success and [[self-confidence]]. On June 4, 1918, the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' reported that the state of Illinois had issued two warrants for his arrest, charging him with violating [[blue sky law]]s by fraudulently attempting to sell shares of his school at a $100,000 capitalization, despite the school's possessing assets appraised only at $1,200.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/355117566/|title=TWO WARRANTS OUT FOR MODEST NAPOLEON HILL|date=4 June 1918|publisher=Chicago Daily Tribune|access-date=31 January 2017}}</ref> 

In 1917, Hill threatened the [[Illinois Central Railroad]] with a lawsuit due to low lighting in their cars allegedly making him need glasses. The George Washington Institute was unaccredited and closed in 1918 following allegations of fraud made by students. During this time, Florence and their children were living with her family in West Virginia.<ref name=":0"/>

Following the closure of the George Washington Institute, Hill embarked on other business ventures, among them the personal magazines ''Hill's Golden Rule'' and ''Napoleon Hill's Magazine''.<ref name= "A Lifetime of Riches" /> In 1919 the [[Federal Trade Commission]] brought charges against Hill and Hill's Golden Rule for fraudulent advertising and [[money laundering | laundering funds]] meant for a veteran's charity into a fraudulent oil stock scheme. Hill claimed that it was in 1918 following the collapse of GWI that Woodrow Wilson personally reached out to Hill for his help winning the [[First World War]]; Hill claimed that Wilson offered him large sums for his aid but that he did not accept any payment for his work because he was a patriot. He claimed that he was so important and involved in the war effort that he had the power to veto the President. Hill claimed to have participated intimately in the negotiation of the armistice with Germany. These claims are not believed to be true.<ref name=":0"/> [[White House]] records include no reference to his ever being there.<ref>Napoleon Hill's Greatest Speeches, N Hill, D Green</ref>

In 1922, he opened the Intra-Wall Correspondence School, a [[charitable foundation]] intended to provide educational materials to prisoners in Ohio. The foundation was directed by, among others, [[check fraud#Forgery|check forger]] and former convict Butler Storke, who would be sent back to prison only a year later. According to Hill's official biography, it was during this period that hundreds of documents proving Hill's association with various famous figures were destroyed in a Chicago storage fire.<ref name= "A Lifetime of Riches" >{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifetimeofriches00mich|url-access=registration|title=A lifetime of riches: the biography of Napoleon Hill|last1=Ritt|first1=Michael J. |last2=Landers |first2=Kirk |date=July 1, 1995 |publisher=Dutton Book|isbn=9780525941460|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifetimeofriches00mich/page/88 88]–91|language=en}}</ref> Intra-Wall Correspondence School primarily sold ''Hill's Golden Rule'' and correspondence courses. In 1923 it was exposed by local newspapers as a scam. Following the murder of [[Donald Mellett]], he promoted a lecture tour based on their acquaintance, with Hill claiming to have been the target of the same assassins.<ref name=":0"/>

Hill lost control over ''Hill's Golden Rule'' to a group of disgruntled employees. Hill attempted to get revenge against one of the employees by reporting them to the FBI as a spy.<ref name="Lingeman" />

Hill founded the Peptomists and the Co-Operative Club which advertised themselves as business organizations in the style of the [[rotary club]].<ref name="Lingeman" />

=== ''The Law of Success'' ===
During 1928, Hill relocated to [[Philadelphia]] and persuaded a [[Connecticut]]-based publisher to publish his eight-volume work ''[[The Law of Success]]'' (1925). The book was Hill's first major success, allowing Hill to adopt an opulent lifestyle. By 1929, he had already bought a [[Rolls-Royce Motor Cars|Rolls-Royce]] and a {{convert|600|acre|adj=on|abbr=off|lk=on}} property in the [[Catskill Mountains]],<ref name="Lingeman" /> with the aid of some lenders.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifetimeofriches00mich|url-access=registration|title=A lifetime of riches: the biography of Napoleon Hill|last1=Ritt|first1=Michael J. |last2=Landers |first2=Kirk |date=1995-07-01 |publisher=Dutton Book |isbn=9780525941460 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifetimeofriches00mich/page/122 122]–125}}</ref>

The beginning of the [[Great Depression]], however, affected Hill's finances adversely, forcing his Catskills property into [[foreclosure]] before the end of 1929.<ref name=Emmert2009/> He went broke, forcing his wife's family to pay for the expenses of Florence and her children.

Hill's next published work, ''The Magic Ladder to Success'' (1930), proved to be a commercial failure. During the next few years, Hill traveled through the country, returning to his habits from the prior decade of initiating various short-lived business ventures. He was involved in the production of the first Mormon film ''[[Corianton: A Story of Unholy Love]]'', which collapsed after investors accused Hill of malfeasance. Hill claimed to have been an advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt during this time. He claimed to have coined the President's famous phrase "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

=== ''Think and Grow Rich'' ===
In 1937, Hill published the bestselling book ''Think and Grow Rich'', which became Hill's best-known work. Hill's new wife Rosa Lee Beeland contributed substantially to the authoring and editing of ''Think and Grow Rich''. Hill's biographers would later say this book sold 20 million copies over 50 years, although as Richard Lingeman remarks in his brief biography, "Alice Payne Hackett's ''70 Years of Best Sellers'' suggests the number was considerably less."<ref name="Lingeman" />

Wealthy once more, Hill resumed his lavish lifestyle and purchased a new estate in [[Mount Dora, Florida]]. Napoleon and Rosa became involved with [[The Royal Fraternity of the Master Metaphysicians]], a cult led by [[James Bernard Schafer]], which regarded ''Think and Grow Rich'' as a religious text. Napoleon became the godfather of "Baby Jene", a child the cult had adopted and claimed to be raising in such a way that she would be immortal. In 1941 the child was returned to her biological mother. After being arrested and convicted in 1942, Schafer claimed that Napoleon had been to blame.<ref name=":0"/> 

The couple divorced around 1940. With much of the wealth from the book going to Rosa, Napoleon returned to his pursuit of success.<ref name=Emmert2009 /> Rosa proceeded to marry her divorce lawyer. Hill and Rosa never repaid Blair for the $300 loan; indeed, Rosa taunted Blair about it.<ref name=":0"/>{{what|date=February 2025}} Rosa would later write a self help book entitled "How to Attract Men and Money."<ref name="Lingeman" />

===Starting again===
In 1941 Hill published ''Mental Dynamite'', but it was a commercial failure.<ref name=":0"/> 

Hill met Annie Lou Norman, who was 47 years old, where he rented a room from her. They married in 1943 and relocated to California. Hill went on the lecture circuit once again.<ref name=Emmert2009 /> In 1947 he briefly hosted a show on [[KFWB Radio]] in Los Angeles. In 1952 he launched a new scam selling courses about success in Missouri. The scam soon collapsed, and he set up a firm called Napoleon Hill Associates to sell courses with [[W. Clement Stone]]. In the 1960s Hill and Stone fell out. Hill turned to selling his course ''Science of Success'' through franchises. In 1963 he founded the Napoleon Hill Foundation.<ref name=":0"/>

==Philosophy of Achievement==
[[File: Napoleon Hill holding book 1937.jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of the head of a man with head tilted and rested on the back of his right hand while reading a book|Napoleon Hill holding his book ''[[Think and Grow Rich]]'', 1937.]]
Hill's "Philosophy of Achievement", offered as a formula for [[rags-to-riches]] success, was published initially in the 1928 multi-volume study course entitled ''[[The Law of Success]]'',<ref name="1928 book">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/Law_Of_Success_in_16_Lessons|title=The Law of Success|last=Hill|first=Napoleon|publisher=Ralston University Press|year=1928}}</ref> a rewrite of a 1925 manuscript. Hill identified [[freedom]], [[democracy]], [[capitalism]], and harmony as being among the foundations to his "Philosophy of Achievement". He asserted that without these foundations, great personal achievements would not be possible.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Hill
|first=Napoleon
|title=The Law of Success from the 1925 Manuscript Lessons
|url=http://www.vieuxpublishing.com/1925_Manuscripts.php
|year=2011
|orig-year=1925
|publisher=Vieux Publishing
|isbn=978-0578084916
}}</ref><ref>Napoleon Hill Foundation: [http://www.naphill.org/about-napoleon-hill/the-1925-edition/ About the "1925 Edition" of Law of Success]</ref>

Hill claimed his philosophy was superior to those of others and that its principles were responsible for the successes of Americans. Hill blamed failure on such emotions as fear and selfishness.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kearns |first=Brad |title=How Tiger Does It |url=https://archive.org/details/howtigerdoesitpu0000kear |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/howtigerdoesitpu0000kear/page/24 24–25] |publisher=McGraw-Hill Professional |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-07-154564-8}}</ref>

A "secret" of achievement was discussed in ''[[Think and Grow Rich]]'', but Hill did not explicitly identify this secret in the book, insisting that readers would benefit most if they discovered it for themselves.

In the introduction, Hill states of the "secret" that Andrew Carnegie "carelessly tossed it into my mind" and that it inspired [[Manuel L. Quezon]] of the [[Commonwealth of the Philippines|Philippine Islands]] to "gain freedom for his people". Although he mentions a "burning desire for money" repeatedly throughout the book, he suggests that avarice is not his "secret" at all. 

Hill returned to the topic of a secret in a 1967 book, where he explicitly stated:

{{c_quote
|quote=''Anything the human mind can believe, the human mind can achieve.'' That is the Supreme Secret.... This is the secret known in bygone times; this
is the secret which governs present-day accomplishment; this is the secret which will follow man to the stars. This is the secret of the ages.
|author=Napoleon Hill|title=''Grow Rich!: With Peace of Mind''|source=Chapter 14}}

He presents the notion of a "Definite Major Purpose" as a challenge to his readers to ask themselves: "In what do I truly believe?" According to Hill, "98%" of people have few or no strong beliefs, which made their achieving success unlikely.<ref name="Think">{{cite book |last=Hill |first=Napoleon |title=Think and Grow Rich |page=viii |location=Chicago, Illinois |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0qAh2gHd4YC&q=Think+and+Grow+Rich |publisher=Combined Registry Company |year=1937 |isbn=1-60506-930-2}}</ref>

Hill declares that the life story of his son Blair is an inspiration to him, claiming that despite being born without ears, Blair had grown up able to hear and speak almost normally. Hill reports that his son, during his last year of college, read chapter two of the manuscript of ''Think and Grow Rich'', discovered Hill's secret "for himself", and then inspired "hundreds and thousands" of people who could neither hear nor speak.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hill |first=Napoleon |title=Think and Grow Rich |pages=11, 52–63 |location=Chicago, Illinois |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0qAh2gHd4YC&q=Think+and+Grow+Rich |publisher=Combined Registry Company |year=1937 |isbn=1-60506-930-2 |access-date=May 3, 2010}}{{dead link|date=March 2017}}</ref>

From 1952 to 1962, Hill taught his ''Philosophy of Personal Achievement—Lectures on Science of Success'' in association with [[W. Clement Stone]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.naphill.org/about-napoleon-hill/napoleon-hill-timeline/ |title=Napoleon Hill Timeline |publisher=Napoleon Hill Foundation |access-date=25 March 2017}}</ref> During 1960, Hill and Stone co-authored the book ''Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude''. [[Norman Vincent Peale]] is quoted saying that Hill and Stone "have the rare gift of inspiring and helping people" and that he owes "them both a personal debt of gratitude for the helpful guidance I have received from their writings."<ref>Hill, Napoleon, Stone, W. Clement, Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude [Back Cover] Pocket Books (1991) {{ISBN|0-671-74322-8}}</ref>

The book is listed in [[John C. Maxwell]]'s ''A Lifetime "Must Read" Books List''.<ref name="johnmaxwell.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.johnmaxwell.com/downloads/jm_lifetimebooklist.pdf |last=Maxwell |first=John |title=A Lifetime "Must Read" Books List |date=March 2008 |access-date=25 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120904061702/http://www.johnmaxwell.com/downloads/jm_lifetimebooklist.pdf |archive-date=September 4, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Hill claimed insight into racism, slavery, oppression, failure, revolution, war, and poverty, asserting that overcoming these difficulties using his "Philosophy of Achievement" was the responsibility of every human.<ref name="Think" />

=== Influence of famous people ===
Later in life, Hill claimed that the turning point of his life had been a 1908 assignment to interview the industrialist and philanthropist [[Andrew Carnegie]]. At that time, Carnegie was among the most powerful men in the world. Hill wrote that Carnegie had actually met with him at that time and challenged him to interview wealthy people to discover a simple formula for success,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0qAh2gHd4YC&q=Think+and+Grow+Rich|title=Think and Grow Rich|last=Hill|first=Napoleon|publisher=Combined Registry Company|year=1937|isbn=1-60506-930-2|location=Chicago, Illinois|page=8}}</ref> and that he had then interviewed many successful people of the time. The authenticity of many of Hill's claims has been widely disputed. Napoleon Hill's collaboration with Andrew Carnegie has remained contentious.<ref name=":0"/>

The acknowledgments in his 1928 multi-volume work ''[[The Law of Success]]'',<ref name="1928 book" /> listed forty-five of those he had studied, "the majority of these men at close range, in person", like those to whom the book set was dedicated: Andrew Carnegie, [[Henry Ford]], and [[Edwin C. Barnes]] (an associate of [[Thomas Edison]]). Hill reported that Carnegie had given him a letter of introduction to Ford,<ref name="Biography">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifetimeofriches00mich|url-access=registration|title=A Lifetime of Riches: The Biography of Napoleon Hill|last2=Landers|first2=Kirk|publisher=Dutton Book |date=July 1, 1995 |isbn=0525941460|last1=Ritt|first1=Michael J.}}</ref> who Hill said then introduced him to [[Alexander Graham Bell]], [[Elmer R. Gates]], Thomas Edison, and [[Luther Burbank]].<ref name="1939 book">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kY9FYguZ5nAC|title=How to Sell Your Way Through Life|last=Hill|first=Napoleon|publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]]|year=2010|isbn=978-0470541180|orig-year=1939}}</ref>

Endorsements for ''The Law of Success'' were allegedly sent in by [[William H. Taft]], [[Cyrus H. K. Curtis]], Thomas Edison, Luther Burbank, [[Ellsworth Milton Statler|E. M. Statler]], [[Edward W. Bok]], and [[John D. Rockefeller]].<ref name="Biography" /><ref name="1939 book" /> The list in the acknowledgments includes, among those Hill wrote that he had personally interviewed, [[Rufus A. Ayers]], [[John Burroughs]], [[Harvey Samuel Firestone]], [[Elbert H. Gary]], [[James J. Hill]], [[George Safford Parker]], [[Theodore Roosevelt]], [[Charles M. Schwab]], [[Frank A. Vanderlip]], [[John Wanamaker]], [[F. W. Woolworth]], [[Daniel Thew Wright]], and [[William Wrigley Jr.]]<ref name="1939 book" /> 

Aside from these, Hill's other claims have been called into question. There is little evidence that he aided President Wilson to negotiate Germany's surrender in [[World War I]]; that he helped President Roosevelt write his [[fireside chats]]; or that he was an attorney. There are no known records of Hill's meetings with the famous men he claimed to have interviewed besides for a brief photo op with Edison.<ref name= "Fortune" >{{cite web|last1=Farnham|first1=Alan|date=7 August 1995|title=Seamy Side Of A Self-Help Swami A New Biography Reveals That Napoleon Hill, Author Of Think & Grow Rich, Which Has Sold Ten Million Copies, Knew Failure Well.|url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1995/08/07/205128/index.htm|access-date=18 June 2019|website=Fortune|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712032949/https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1995/08/07/205128/index.htm|archive-date=12 July 2018}}</ref>

==Alleged spirit visitations==
Hill openly described visits from spirits in chapter 12 of his book ''Grow Rich! With Peace of Mind'' (1967). He described them as unseen friends, unseen watchers, strange beings, and the [[Ascended master|Great School of Masters]] that had been guarding him, and who maintain a "school of wisdom". Hill states that the "Master" spoke to him audibly, revealing secret knowledge. Hill further insists that the Masters "can disembody themselves and travel instantly to any place they choose to acquire essential knowledge or to give knowledge directly, by voice, to anyone else."

''Grow Rich! With Peace of Mind'' was allegedly influenced by Hill's spirit voices; Hill cites the "Master", writing: "Much of what he said already has been presented to you in the chapters of this book or will follow in other chapters." In Chapter 14 of his book ''Think and Grow Rich'' (1937), he openly talks about his "invisible counselors" with whom he discusses various areas of his life. Hill refers to these meetings with his counselors as being real because he consistently told himself they were real, a principle he refers to as "autosuggestion". Hill does admit the talks were only real to him because of his imagination but professes his belief that the "dominating thoughts and desires" of one's mind make those thoughts real.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hill |first=Napoleon |title=Think and Grow Rich |location=Chicago, Illinois |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0qAh2gHd4YC&q=Think+and+Grow+Rich |publisher=Combined Registry Company |year=1937 |isbn=1-60506-930-2}}</ref>

== Death ==
Napoleon Hill died aged 87 on November 8, 1970.<ref>{{cite news|title=Napoleon Hill|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11491720/napoleon_hill_18831970/|newspaper=The Bee|date=November 10, 1970|page=7|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|access-date = June 5, 2017}} {{Open access}}</ref> His estimated net worth at the time of his death was about $1 million<ref name= "Fortune" /> {{USDCY|1000000|1970}}.

==Legacy==
Hill's works were inspired by the philosophy of [[New Thought]] and the writings of [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], and are listed as New Thought reading.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKNYynQkccYC&q=Occult+History+Mysticism+Shaped+dale+carnegie+napoleon+hill&pg=PA87|title=Occult America: The Secret History of how Mysticism Shaped Our Nation|last=Horowitz|first=Mitch|date=January 1, 2009 |publisher=Bantam Books |isbn=9780553806755|pages=87}}</ref><ref>Starker, S. (2002) Oracle at the Supermarket: The American Preoccupation With Self-Help Books</ref><ref>Books : Religion & Spirituality : New Age & Spirituality : New Thought : Napoleon Hill, Amazon.com</ref>

Hill has been seen as inspiring later self-help works, such as [[Rhonda Byrne]]'s ''[[The Secret (Byrne book)|The Secret]]''. ''[[Gizmodo]]'' has called him "the most famous conman you've probably never heard of".<ref name=":0"/>

===Napoleon Hill Foundation===
The Napoleon Hill Foundation is a nonprofit foundation that promotes the teachings of Napoleon Hill. Following the death of Napoleon in 1970, the foundation and his widow Annie Lou were embroiled in a protracted court battle over the estate, which lasted into the 1980s. The foundation maintains a private archive of Hill's papers. It awards the annual Napoleon Hill Award. The foundation continues to sell Hill's books, courses, and leadership certificates.<ref name=":0" /> 

In 1995 the authorized biography of Hill's life, ''A Lifetime of Riches'', was released by Michael J. Ritt Jr. (the executive director of the foundation) and Kirk Landers, which came to a number of controversial conclusions.<ref name="Lingeman" />

==Works==
*''[[The Law of Success]]'' (1928)
*''The Magic Ladder to Success'' (1930)
*''[[Think and Grow Rich]]'' (1937)
*''[[Outwitting the Devil]]'' (1938, published 2011)
*''How to Sell Your Way Through Life'' (1939)
*''The Master-Key to Riches'' (1945)
*''How to Raise Your Own Salary'' (1953)
*''Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude'' (with [[W. Clement Stone]]) (1959)
*''Grow Rich!: With Peace of Mind'' (1967)
*''Succeed and Grow Rich Through Persuasion'' (with E. Harold Keown) (1970)
*''You Can Work Your Own Miracles'' (1971)

== See also ==
* [[Dale Carnegie]]
* [[Law of Attraction (New Thought)|Law of Attraction]]

==References==
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==External links==
* {{wikiquote-inline}}
* {{commons category-inline}}
*{{Wikisource-inline|Think and Grow Rich}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Napoleon}}
[[Category:1883 births]]
[[Category:1970 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American writers]]
[[Category:People from Pound, Virginia]]
[[Category:American motivational writers]]
[[Category:American self-help writers]]
[[Category:American finance and investment writers]]
[[Category:Andrew Carnegie]]
[[Category:Writers from Virginia]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:American confidence tricksters]]