Og Mandino; Author of ‘Greatest Salesman in World’

Augustine A. “Og” Mandino, 72, a motivational writer and lecturer who became famous with his book “The Greatest Salesman in the World.” Expanding on a short story he had written for his motivational magazine, Success Unlimited, the book told the life of a camel boy who gives a blanket to the infant Jesus Christ and grows up to be successful. Born in Boston, Mandino began as an insurance salesman and in 1960 began writing his sales advice. Crediting self-help books for turning his own life around, he wrote 19 motivational books that sold a total of more than 30 million copies. Mandino’s prose was simple and direct, and his stories illustrated basic themes, such as perseverance, on which success is based. He attended Bucknell Junior College and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross as a navigator in the Army Air Corps during World War II. On Sept. 3 in Antrim, N.H., of an aneurysm.