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Orison Swett Marden Books: A Free Classic Leadership Library
Orison Swett Marden books shaped how a generation of Americans thought about character and work, and you can read and listen to the best of them here for free. The library starts with five of his books that I edited for today's reader and narrated in full, followed by his life story and the classics by other early success writers that leaders still quote.
I first came across Marden while I was on a treadmill with a Brian Tracy audiobook playing. Tracy called him the father of the American success movement, and I wanted to know more about the man behind the name, so I started reading everything about him I could find.
Marden lost his mother when he was three and his father when he was seven, and he spent his boyhood working for other families as hired help. His personal story is one of great inspiration.
I lost my own dad unexpectedly when I was nine, so his story stayed with me. For years Pushing to the Front was the free gift I sent every new subscriber, and I've since collected more than 50 of his books.
Everything on this page is now a free download, and you don't need to sign up for anything to access these classics.
Jump To: The Leadership Series | Listen on Your Commute | His Life Story | More Classics | Napoleon Hill on Film | FAQ
The Leadership Series for Successful Living
The Leadership Series takes five of Marden's books and edits them lightly, so they read easily in today's English. I picked each volume because it speaks to something a leader needs, from the ambition to grow to the persistence to finish what you start.
Each volume has the full ebook and a companion workbook with questions for every chapter, and I recorded the complete audio myself. The Audio + Files button downloads a zip with the chapter MP3s, the ebook, the workbook in Word and PDF, and the cover.
Volume Two
Character
From Character: The Grandest Thing in the World (1899)
Want all five at once?
One PDF holds all five ebooks and workbooks, with a bookmark for every chapter.
One PDF holds all five ebooks and workbooks, with a bookmark for every chapter.
On a phone, the zip files are awkward, so you can also play any chapter straight from the table below. Each link opens one chapter's MP3, which most phones will play or save without any extra app.
| Volume | Play a chapter |
|---|---|
| Ambition | Intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Conclusion |
| Character | Intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Conclusion |
| The Hour of Opportunity | Intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Conclusion |
| Diligence: Do It to a Finish | Intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Conclusion |
| Persistence: An Iron Will | Intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Conclusion |
How to Fit Orison Swett Marden Books Into a Busy Week
The audio is where most people start, because it fits into time you already have. A chapter of Persistence runs about ten minutes, about the length of a short drive or a walk at lunch, and the workbook questions wait for whenever you have a quiet half hour.
DANA'S COMMUTE, ONE VOLUME IN TWO WEEKS
The setup: Dana was promoted to operations manager in March and drives 25 minutes each way. She downloaded the chapter files for Persistence: An Iron Will to her phone, nine tracks that run about an hour and a half in all.
The routine: She played one track on each drive in, Monday through Friday, and kept the radio for the drive home. On the weekend she opened the companion workbook and answered the questions for the chapters she had heard that week.
| Week one | Week two | |
|---|---|---|
| Tracks heard | Introduction and Chapters One to Four | Chapters Five to Seven and the Conclusion |
| Listening time | About 50 minutes | About 45 minutes |
| Workbook | Four chapters answered on Sunday | The rest answered on Saturday |
What she used: One workbook question asks what limits you've placed on yourself. Dana wrote that she wasn't a numbers person, which was why she kept handing the month-end reconciliation to her senior clerk. The next month she did it herself, with the clerk checking her work.
Dana didn't find extra time to read. She used the drive she was already making.
The Life Story of Orison Swett Marden
Margaret Connolly worked beside Marden for years, and she wrote his life story from his own papers soon after he died in 1924. It follows him from a hard New Hampshire childhood through medical and law school, a hotel fortune he made and lost, and the founding of Success magazine.
I edited the book for today's reader and narrated all of it, and the full recording is one MP3 file.
Who Was Orison Swett Marden?
Marden was born in 1848 in Thornton Gore, New Hampshire, and grew up working as a hired boy after his parents died. A copy of Samuel Smiles' Self-Help he found in an attic convinced him he could make something of his life.
He worked his way through school, earned degrees in medicine and law, and ran hotels before he turned to writing. He wrote Pushing to the Front in 1894 and founded Success magazine in 1897, and over the next 30 years he wrote more than 50 books on character and achievement. That body of work is why he's often called the father of the American success movement.
You can read more about his life, and how Pushing to the Front came to be written, on the Orison Swett Marden page.
More Classic Books for Leaders
Self-Help is the book that set Marden on his course, and the others were written in the same tradition. Each one is a new edition with a matching Leadership Tools cover. Every book opens with a one-page summary of what it says and ends with five lessons for leaders today, each linked to a free tool on this site.
Where a free audio version exists, the Listen Free button takes you to the LibriVox recording, read by volunteers.
Pushing to the Front
Orison Swett Marden · 1894
Marden's first book, built from the stories of people who rose from hard starts. This is the 1911 revised and enlarged edition.
Self-Help
Samuel Smiles · 1859
The book a young Marden found in an attic, and the one that set his course. It sold 20,000 copies in its first year. This is the revised 1866 text.
Acres of Diamonds
Russell H. Conwell · 1890
Conwell's lecture on the opportunity close to home, which he gave more than 6,000 times. He founded Temple University, and this edition includes his life story.
A Message to Garcia
Elbert Hubbard · 1899
A short essay about a soldier who carried a message to a rebel general without asking how. On LibriVox, play section 9 of the collection.
As a Man Thinketh
James Allen · 1903
A short book on how the way you think shapes your character and your circumstances. You can read it in under an hour.
The Science of Getting Rich
Wallace D. Wattles · 1910
Wattles' practical case for setting a clear goal and acting on it every day.
Selected Poems
Ella Wheeler Wilcox · 1883 to 1913
Twelve poems from four of her books, including "Solitude," the poem that begins "Laugh, and the world laughs with you."
Prosperity: How to Attract It
Orison Swett Marden · 1922
One of Marden's later books, on the habits of mind that open the door to opportunity.
The Law of Success
Napoleon Hill · 1928
Hill's original course in sixteen lessons, the work that came before Think and Grow Rich.
Think and Grow Rich
Napoleon Hill · 1937
The original 1937 text of Hill's best-known book.
More Orison Swett Marden Books on Audio
LibriVox volunteers have recorded several more of Marden's books, and each one is a free download.
Napoleon Hill on Film
In 1954, Napoleon Hill filmed a 13-part television series on his principles of success, and this recording comes from it. W. Clement Stone, the insurance businessman who had talked Hill out of retirement two years earlier, produced the series with him and introduces him on screen. Hill was about 70 by then, and the principles he teaches are the ones he'd been refining since The Law of Success came out in 1928, starting with definiteness of purpose.
If you've read The Law of Success or Think and Grow Rich from this library, you'll recognize the ideas, and it's worth hearing Hill explain them himself. It's long, so treat it like an audiobook and watch an episode or two at a time.
Orison Swett Marden Books FAQ
The questions below address what leaders most commonly ask about Orison Swett Marden books and this free library.
Click on the (+) sign below to expand each question. Click the (-) sign to collapse it again.
Are these Orison Swett Marden books free to download?
What are the best Orison Swett Marden books to start with?
Pushing to the Front is his best-known book and the one most readers start with. If you'd rather listen, start with Ambition, Volume One of the Leadership Series, which is narrated in full and comes with a companion workbook.
What is the Leadership Series for Successful Living?
It's five of Marden's books, edited lightly for today's reader and narrated in full by Richard Gorham. Each volume comes with a companion workbook that has questions for every chapter.
What's the difference between the ebook and the workbook?
The ebook is Marden's full text. The workbook follows the same chapters with a short summary of the key points and questions you answer in writing, so you can apply each idea to your own work.
Who was Orison Swett Marden?
Marden was an American writer born in 1848 who lost both parents as a young boy. He wrote Pushing to the Front in 1894, founded Success magazine in 1897 and is often called the father of the American success movement.
Are the other classic books the original texts?
Yes. Each one is the author's own text, from Self-Help to Think and Grow Rich, with scanning and typing errors fixed. Every book opens with a one-page summary and ends with five lessons for leaders today.
Can I share these files with my team?
Yes. You're welcome to pass any of them along, and the cover on each file shows where to find the rest of the library.
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