Read - always read

His formal education was scant, but he overcame this lack through a devotion to reading. Objective in his view of the human condition, he wasn't afraid to question conventional attitudes. Though poor when he went to war, and handicapped by the economic uncetainties of Reconstruction when he came home, he managed, through innovative lumbering ventures, to die a man of wealth and high social standing.

(from the Introduction to Revel Private: Front and Rear, by William A. Fletcher)