Outwitting the Devil is a book by Napoleon Hill, with annotations by Sharon Lechter. It was originally written in 1938 by Hill, but was said to be too controversial to be published during that time period. It was released by Sterling Publishing in June, 2011.
The book is an interview between Hill (Mr. Earthbound) and The Devil (Your Majesty). Hill attempts to uncover the secrets to freedom and success by evaluating the greatest obstacles that humans face in order to attain their personal goals in life.
During the book, (Mr. Earthbound) interrogates The Devil, Your Majesty, to find out how people limit their success and how The Devil achieves his manipulation.
Some of the topics that are discussed are:
After the release of Think and Grow Rich, Hill began writing Outwitting the Devil as an explanation of why some were still seeing failure after following all of the steps in Think and Grow Rich. His wife, Annie Lou, did not want the book published because of the role the Devil played in it. When Hill died in 1970, the manuscript went into the possession of Annie Lou, who died in 1984. After her death, the manuscript went into the hands of Dr. Charles Johnson, who was Annie Lou’s nephew and president of the Napoleon Hill Foundation. While Dr. Johnson believed the book’s message to be powerful, his wife, Frankie Johnson, shared Annie Lou’s feelings and told Dr. Johnson that she did not want the manuscript published while she was alive. After Frankie’s death, Dr. Johnson passed the manuscript to Don Green, CEO of the Napoleon Hill Foundation. Sharon Lechter was then asked to edit the manuscript, and after several years of annotations and reviews, it was released in June, 2011.
Outwitting the Devil: the Secret to Freedom and Success, by Napoleon Hill and Sharon L. Lechter. New York: Sterling Publishing, 2011.