Fun fact — J.D. Salinger parodied Peale’s absurd yet alluring self-help schtick in his terrific double-header Franny & Zooey.

Zooey, in conversation with his mother, says (sarcastically):

“I hope you’ll accept from me a little volume I’ve always admired… ‘God Is My Hobby.’ By Dr. Homer Vincent Claude Pierson, Jr…. Dr. Pierson tells us very clearly how when he was twenty-one years of age he started putting aside a little time each day — two minutes in the morning and two minutes at night, if I remember correctly — and at the end of the first year, just by these little informal visits with God, he increased his annual income seventy-four per cent.”