Oliver Napoleon Hill (born October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is known best for his book Think and Grow Rich (1937) which is among the 10 best selling self-help books of all time. Hill\'s works insisted that fervid expectations are essential to improving one\'s life. Most of his books were promoted as expounding principles to achieve "success".\n', '

Hill was born in a one-room cabin near the Appalachian town of Pound in southwest Virginia. His parents were James Monroe Hill and Sarah Sylvania (Blair) and he was grandson of James Madison Hill and Elizabeth (Jones). His grandfather came to the United States from England and settled in southwestern Virginia during 1847.\n', '

Hill\'s mother died when he was nine years old, and his father remarried two years later to Martha. 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." At the age of 13, Hill began writing as a "mountain reporter", initially for his father\'s newspaper. At the age of 15, he married a local girl who had accused him of fathering her child; the girl recanted the claim, and the marriage was annulled.\n', '

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