Pushing to the Front

Pushing to the Front is a book by Orison Swett Marden, first published in 1911. Written as a practical, no-nonsense manual for readers facing setbacks, it collects short, energetic chapters on perseverance, self-discipline, leadership, and character.

Marden's voice is plain and exhortatory: he urges readers to cultivate grit, good habits, and moral courage as the foundation for success. The book reads like a handbook of Victorian-era self-improvement, full of short maxims and illustrative anecdotes designed to be read a chapter at a time and applied immediately.

Beyond practical tips, the work helped shape the emerging self-help and New Thought traditions at the turn of the 20th century: its emphasis on willpower, right thinking, and personal initiative influenced popular ideas about character and success, and it remained in print in many editions. Marden himself went on to found Success magazine and became a central figure in the period’s literature on personal achievement; readers from business leaders to ordinary individuals have long cited Pushing to the Front as a formative text. This makes the book both a useful read for anyone seeking classic motivation and a historically important piece for those researching the roots of modern personal-development writing.