Catherine Ponder

Catherine Ponder is one of the most stellar, and certainly one of the most loveable, figures in the history of self-help publishing.
Ms. Ponder rose to fame through a series of books which managed, somewhat perplexingly, to fuse Biblical stories with a self-help theory of prosperity and personal development. Currently I'm reading her great classic The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity. Some of her other titles include The Millionaires of Genesis and The Millionaire Moses.
Ponder's own biography is an essential part of her appeal. Born poor, she was widowed at an early age and left destitute. Through a careful study of the Bible and the writings of Charles & Myrtle Fillmore, Ponder managed to create for herself a prosperous lifestyle. She became a Unity minister, and went on to Pastor several successful congregations, teaching her own high-octane version of the prosperity gospel and running workshops on spirituality and the creation of money.
These workshops and lectures make up the bulk of the material in her books, and have also been the source of many of the examples and case studies she cites.
The books are wonderfully eccentric, veering from old-fashioned biblical exegesis to frenzied affirmations of impending wealth and well-being. She peppers the books with all kinds of eccentric advice and exercises, from throwing away all of one's old clothes in order to allow the universe to send you nice new ones, to writing letters to one's angels and secreting them in the family bible till your wishes come true.
As one would expect from a Unity minister, Ms. Ponder's philososphy is pretty standard New Thought, but her wildly successful books prove that her readership extends well beyond that particular religion.
I just adore her - I imagine she was/is a completely outrageous and very colourful person, and the assuredness of her assertions and randomness of her advice make the books constantly entertaining, and frequently inspiring.