In 1952, a book titled The Power of Positive Thinking appeared under the name of an American Protestant clergyman, and it went on to become a best-seller that brought the concept of positive thinking to a wide public readership.

Norman Vincent Peale was born on May 31, 1898, in Bowersville, a United States citizen who would spend much of his life working in the English language as a minister and writer. He received his education at Ohio Wesleyan University and subsequently at Boston University, including the Boston University School of Theology, training that prepared him for a career in Protestant ministry.

In 1932, Peale took up the position of pastor at Marble Collegiate Church in New York, a post he would hold for decades. That long tenure placed him at the center of a congregation in one of the country's most prominent cities, and it was during these years that he developed his public profile as a clergyman. He remained in that role until his retirement in 1984, a span of more than fifty years in the same pulpit. His 1952 publication, The Power of Positive Thinking, established his reputation beyond the walls of Marble Collegiate Church, as the book popularized the concept of positive thinking for a broad audience and achieved best-seller status. Among the recognitions he received during his lifetime were the Horatio Alger Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the latter representing one of the highest civilian honors granted by the United States government.

Peale died on December 24, 1993, in Pawling, at the age of ninety-five. The Presidential Medal of Freedom he had received stands as a formal acknowledgment of his public contributions by the United States government, and The Power of Positive Thinking, published four decades before his death, remained the work most closely associated with his name and with the broader popularization of positive thinking as a concept in American life.