The character arc of Napoleon Hill
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born Oliver Napoleon Hill on 26 October 1883 in a one-room cabin near the Appalachian town of Pound in southwest Virginia, the son of a dentist. Between then and his death sit his mother's death when he was nine, a stepmother the record describes as a good influence who made him go to school, work as a mountain reporter for his father's newspaper at thirteen, a marriage at fifteen that was annulled, business school at seventeen, a book in 1937 that became one of the best-selling self-help books of all time, and a long record of criminal charges, fraud accusations and claims that historians doubt. The line below draws the whole story.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Napoleon Hill?
A one-room cabin in Virginia, and one of the best-selling books ever written.
He was born in a one-room cabin near an Appalachian town in southwest Virginia. His grandfather had come from England and settled there in 1847. His father was a dentist, at first unofficially and then with a licence. His mother died when he was nine years old, and his father remarried two years later. The record is generous about his stepmother, the widow of a school principal, who is described as a good influence who civilised a wild child and made him go to school and attend church.
At thirteen he began writing as a mountain reporter, initially for his father's newspaper. At fifteen he married a local girl who had accused him of fathering her child; she later withdrew the claim and the marriage was annulled. At seventeen he graduated from high school and moved to another Virginia town to attend business school, and in 1901 took a job working for a lawyer who was a coal magnate and a former state attorney general.
What he is known for is the book. Think and Grow Rich was published in 1937 and is among the best-selling self-help books of all time. His works insisted that strongly held expectations are essential to improving a life, and most of his books are promoted as setting out principles for achieving success. The entire modern genre of personal development runs, in one way or another, through that book.
He is also a controversial figure, and the record is unambiguous about it. He had a history of criminal charges and fraud accusations across a string of business ventures, and historians doubt many of his claims, including that he met Andrew Carnegie, the meeting on which he built the book's whole authority, and that he was an attorney. He died on 8 November 1970.
Both halves belong on the line. A boy born in a one-room cabin with a dead mother wrote a book that tens of millions of people have used, and a great deal of what he said about himself does not hold up. This page states both and does not choose between them.
The moments
Napoleon Hill's timeline.
The 1890s
A one-room cabin
Everyday. One room, in the Appalachians, in the 1880s.
His mother dies
Setback, and it changed everything. Nine years old, and his mother gone.
A stepmother who insisted
Milestone, and it changed everything. A school principal's widow, who made him go to school.
The mine, or the newspaper
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: write for the paper, taken, or take the local work. He wrote for a living from thirteen, and the 1937 book became one of the best-selling of its kind.
A mountain reporter at thirteen
Milestone, and it changed everything. Thirteen years old, and already filing copy.
A marriage at fifteen
Setback, and it changed his direction. Married at fifteen, and annulled soon after.
The 1900s
Business school
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Out of the mountains at seventeen, into business school.
The ventures go wrong
Setback, and it changed everything. A string of ventures, and a string of charges and accusations.
The 1920s
The principles of success
Milestone, and it changed his direction. One argument, repeated across everything he wrote.
The 1930s
Think and Grow Rich
Milestone, and it changed everything. One of the best-selling self-help books ever published.
The 1950s
The claims are doubted
Setback, and it changed everything. Historians doubt the meeting the whole book rests on.
The 1970s
He dies at eighty seven
Milestone, and it changed everything. Eighty seven years old, and the book already thirty three years in print.
The book is still in print, still selling, ninety years on, and the arguments about the man are still going too. What he set moving is the entire shape of the personal development shelf, started from a cabin in the Appalachians by somebody whose own account of himself the historians cannot verify.
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Napoleon Hill: frequently asked questions
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Where does this timeline of Napoleon Hill's life come from?
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Sources
- Napoleon Hill, English Wikipedia biography.
- Its record of criminal charges, fraud accusations and the claims historians doubt, including the Carnegie meeting and his claim to have been an attorney.
- Biographers Landers and Ritt, as that entry quotes them, on his stepmother.
- The record reached gives no place of death beyond his country, so this page says no more.