Oscar Wilde (born October 16, 1854, Dublin, Ireland-died November 30, 1900, Paris, France) was an Irish wit, poet, and dramatist whose enduring fame rests on his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Wilde was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art's sake. He was also known for his flamboyant style and sharp wit, which made him a popular figure in London's social and artistic circles2. However, his career was marred by scandal when he was imprisoned for homosexual acts in 1895. After his release, Wilde lived in straitened circumstances and died at the age of 46.

Tom Butler-Bowden was working as a political adviser in Australia when, at 25, he read Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Captivated by it and other books in the personal development field, he left his career and went on to write critical introductions to self-development and prosperity classics through the best-selling Capstone Classics series published by Wiley. He then went on to write bestselling 50 Self-Help Classics, the first guide to the personal development literature and a winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award.