Hard Work, the Secret of a Great Inventor’s Genius—Thomas Alva Edison

A “Down-East” Yankee Who Dictates Peace to the Nations—Hiram Stevens Maxim

A Poor Boy Who Once Borrowed Books Now Gives Away Libraries—Andrew Carnegie

A Good Shoemaker Becomes Detroit’s Best Mayor and Michigan’s Greatest Governor—Hazen S. Pingree

Determination Not to Remain Poor Made a Farmer Boy Merchant Prince—Marshall Field

Honesty the Foundation of a Great Merchant’s Career—John Wanamaker

A British Boy Wins Fortune and Title by American Business Methods—Sir Thomas Lipton

A Self-made Man Who Strives to Give Others a Chance—Darius Ogden Mills

Thrift, the Secret of a Fortune Built in a Single Lifetime—Russell Sage

Cut Out for a Banker, He Rose from Errand Boy to Secretary of the United States Treasury—Lyman Judson Gage

A Young Millionaire Not Afraid to Work in Overalls—Cornelius Vanderbilt

A Messenger Boy’s Zeal Lifts Him to the Head of the World’s Greatest Telegraph System—Robert C. Clowry

Enthusiasm for Railroading Makes a Section Hand Head of the Metropolitan System—Herbert H. Vreeland

A Factory Boy’s Purpose to Improve Labor Makes Him a Great Leader—Samuel Gompers

A Puny Boy, by Physical Culture, Becomes the Most Vigorous of American Presidents—Theodore Roosevelt

A Brave Volunteer Fights His Way to the Head of the American Army—Nelson A. Miles

Making the Most of His Opportunities Wins a Coveted Embassy—Joseph H. Choate

A Village Boy’s Gift of Oratory Earns Him Wealth and Fame—Chauncey M. Depew

A Chance-Found Book the Turning Point in a United States Senator’s Career—Jonathan P. Dolliver

Varied Business Training the Foundation of a Long Political Career—Thomas C. Platt

A Magnate, the Courage of His Convictions Makes Him a Reformer—Tom L. Johnson

A Backwoods Boy Works His Way Through College and Becomes University President—Jacob Gould Schurman

A “Jack of All Trades” Masters One and Becomes the Poet of the People—James Whitcomb Riley

A Farm Boy Who Devoured Books Writes One of the Greatest Poems of the Century—Edwin Markham

A Famous Authoress Tells Literary Aspirants the Story of Her Struggle for Recognition—Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A Printer’s Boy, Self-Taught, Becomes the Dean of American Letters—William Dean Howells

A Famous Novelist Atones for Wasted School Days by Self-Culture—General Lew Wallace

A Social Leader, Having “Eyes That See,” Earns Literary Laurels—Mrs. Burton Harrison

Painstaking the Secret of a Celebrated Painter’s Success—Edwin Austin Abbey

A School Girl, Not Afraid of Drudgery, Becomes America’s Foremost Woman Illustrator—Alice Barber Stephens

A Schoolboy’s Sketches Reveal the Bent of a Talented Illustrator—Frederic Remington

Rebuffs and Disappointments Fail to Repress a Great Cartoonist’s Genius—Homer Davenport

Being Himself in Style and Subjects the Secrets of an Artist’s Wonderful Popularity—Charles Dana Gibson

A “Printer’s Devil” Whose Perseverance Wins Him Well-Earned Reputation as a Fun-Maker—Frederick Burr Opper

“A Square Man in a Round Hole” Rejects $5,000 a Year and Becomes a Sculptor—F. Wellington Ruckstuhl

During Leisure Hours he “Found Himself” and Abandoned Law for Art—Henry Merwin Shrady

Deformed in Body, His Cheerful Spirit Makes Him the Entertainer of Princes—Marshall P. Wilder

Energy and Earnestness Win an Actor Fame—Richard Mansfield

A Father’s Common-Sense Gives America a Great Bandmaster—John Philip Sousa

Blind, Deaf and Dumb, Patient Effort Wins Her Culture and Rare Womanhood—Helen Keller

Jay Gould’s Chum Chooses “High Thinking, Not Money-Making,” and Wins Success Without Riches—John Burroughs

A Millionaire’s Daughter Makes Inherited Wealth a Blessing to Thousands—Helen Miller Gould

A Self-Made Merchant Solves the Problem of Practical Philanthropy—Nathan Strauss

A Varied Career Develops the Resourceful Head of a Great Institutional Church and College—Russell H. Conwell

An Inspiring Personality Wins a Noted Preacher Fame—Frank W. Gunsaulus

From the Forge to the Pulpit, a Life of Devotion and Application—Robert Collyer

Canada’s Leading Conservative Extols “the Country of the Twentieth Century”—Robert Laird Borden

An Eminent Scholar Advocates the Union of Canada and the United States—Goldwin Smith

After Failure as a Grocer, He Becomes the Ablest Administrator Quebec Has Ever Had—S. N. Parent

Canada’s Leading Economist Tells Her Sons to Seek Fortune in Her Own Domain—Andrew G. Blair

A Distinguished Educator Has Found Contentment in the Simple Life—James Loudon

Beginning as Telegraph Operator He Built the Canadian Pacific—Sir William C. Van Horne

An Immigrant Boy Becomes a National Figure in Reform—Samuel Jones

A “Forty-niner” who Seized Opportunities Others Failed to See—Philip D. Armour

The Blind Yacht Designer Attributes His Conquests to His Mother’s Early Care—John B. Herreshoff

A Great Vocalist Shows that Only Years of Labor Can Win the Heights of Song—Lillian Nordica