Acres of Diamonds

Russell Herman Conwell (February 15 1843 - December 6 1925) was an American Baptist minister orator philanthropist lawyer and writer. He is best remembered as the founder and first president of Temple University in Philadelphia as the Pastor of The Baptist Temple and for his inspirational lecture Acres of Diamonds. The original inspiration for Acres of Diamonds his most famous essay occurred in 1869 when Conwell was traveling in the Middle East. The work began as a speech at first given wrote Conwell in 1913 before a reunion of my old comrades of the Forty-sixth Massachusetts Regiment which served in the Civil War and in which I was captain. It was delivered as a lecture on the Chautauqua circuit prior to his becoming pastor of the Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia in 1882 and was first published in book form in 1890 by the John Y. Huber Company of Philadelphia. Before his death in 1925 Conwell would deliver it over 6152 times around the world. The central idea of the work is that one need not look elsewhere for opportunity achievement or fortune; the resources to achieve all good things are present in ones own community. This theme is developed by an introductory anecdote credited by Conwell to an Arab guide about a man who wanted to find diamonds so badly that he sold his property and went off in futile search for them. The new owner of his home discovered that a rich diamond mine was located right there on the property. Conwell elaborates on the theme through examples of success genius service or other virtues involving ordinary Americans contemporary to his audience: dig in your own backyard!