I have known the author of this book, Frank Bettger, since 1917. He came up the hard way, got little formal education, never finished grade school. The history of his life is an outstanding American success story.
His father died when he was just a small boy, leaving his mother with five little children. When he was eleven years old, he had to get up at four-thirty in the morning to sell newspapers on street corners to help his widowed mother, who took in washing and sewing in order to help feed her family. Mr. Bettger told me that there were many times when he seldom had anything for his evening meal but cornmeal mush and skimmed milk.
At fourteen he had to leave school; took a job as a steamfitter's helper. At eighteen, he became a professional baseball player, and for two years he played third base for the St. Louis Cardinals. Then one day in Chicago, Illinois, while playing against the Chicago Cubs, he injured his arm and was forced to give up baseball.