Letter to Napoleon Hill
One of the best-selling and most inspirational authors of all time

Dear Napoleon Hill,

In your chapter on the Sixth Sense, you write of your daily conversations with Edison, Paine, Darwin, Lincoln, Ford and Carnegie. These men were all dead, but every night you conversed with them, sought their counsel, asked them questions.

And so I am sure you will understand why I am writing to you, openly on the Internet, when supposedly you are dead. You are not dead. You continue to live in the minds and hearts of millions of men and women whose lives have been transformed by your work. Several years ago, I decided to adopt you as one of my counselors, just as you had adopted Edison and the others for yourself. And now I am ready to thank you. Above all, to share with you the fruits of your wisdom.

You said that we cannot deeply desire that which we are not capable of achieving. You also said that our burning desire is an accurate picture of what we will one day become. And like a flash of lightning, it hit me: it would have been impossible for me to envision and desire a Renaissance in the bookworld unless it was truly destined to happen. It would have been impossible for me to write Goodbye Gutenberg: How a Bronx Teacher Defied 500 Years of Tradition and Launched an Astonishing Renaissance unless its vision can – and ultimately will - be fulfilled. When such visions are based on a true and worthwhile foundation, and when they contribute to improving the lives of others, they will last. This, as you say, is an absolute law of nature. When I realized all of this, I felt an inner peace that is indescribable.

Starting in my teens, and continuing to this day, the great artists have cast a spell on me, often commanding me to spend hours staring at their works, whether on the walls of museums or in the pages of magnificent coffee table books. They speak to the deepest parts of my soul. But especially the Italian artists, they speak to me directly. They keep telling me that theirs was an example that can be matched or even surpassed. In fact, they keep telling me that it is my obligation to do so, because I am alive, capable, lucky, and in the right time and place to help launch another Renaissance.

But not only me. Thousands of other gifted young writers are alive and lucky and capable of creating this Renaissance, too. And my sixth sense tells me that very soon they will. You looked right at me, deep into my eyes, and said, “Valerie, you are the first, and this is your contribution. But others will come and stand on your shoulders, and go farther than even you can imagine.”

Warmly,

Valerie Kirschenbaum

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