The Victorious Attitude

A woman who is not a member enters Boston’s Athenæum, settles into a window seat, and spends the morning reading as if she belongs there. What keeps anyone from asking for her card?

Orison Swett Marden opens The Victorious Attitude with this small, startling encounter, then turns to the stakes of everyday life: work, reputation, and the first impressions that can open or close a door. Writing in the early twentieth century, he argues that doubt and fear show themselves in a person’s bearing, while confidence can summon trust—in oneself and in others. His challenge is not simply to look like a winner, but to meet difficulty with the mind of one. How much of the future, Marden asks, is decided by the way we face it?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.