author
Ralph Albert Parlette
1870–1930
A popular early 20th-century lecturer turned life lessons into lively, upbeat books that encouraged readers to learn from setbacks and keep moving forward. Best known for The University of Hard Knocks, he wrote in a plainspoken, motivational style that reached large audiences across the United States.
1 Audiobook
The University of Hard Knocks
by Ralph Albert Parlette
About the author
Born on August 30, 1870, Ralph Albert Parlette was an American author, lecturer, and editor whose work blended humor, encouragement, and practical optimism. He became closely associated with the lyceum and Chautauqua circuit, where public speakers traveled widely to present talks on education, culture, and self-improvement.
Parlette is best remembered for The University of Hard Knocks, a lecture and later a book built around the idea that adversity can be one of life's best teachers. Contemporary catalog records and later reprints show that he also wrote other motivational works and was active in publishing in Chicago.
He died in Chicago on November 19, 1930. Though not widely known today, his writing captures a distinctly American self-help tradition from the early 1900s: cheerful, conversational, and convinced that ordinary experience could be turned into wisdom.