Bruce Barton (1886-1967), American business executive and Congressman, was the most famous advertising man of his day, thanks to his best-selling book The Man Nobody Knows.

Bruce Barton was born on August 5, 1886, in Robbins, Tennessee. Most of his youth, however, was spent in Oak Park, Illinois, where his father was pastor of the town's Congregational church. Young Barton showed an early interest in journalism. While still in high school he was both editor of the school paper and a reporter for the local weekly. He graduated from Amherst College in 1907, after having been voted Phi Beta Kappa, head of the student council, and "man most likely to succeed."

From 1907 to 1911 Barton was editor of two small magazines in Chicago, the Home Herald and Housekeeper, neither of which prospered. In 1912 he moved to New York City to become assistant sales manager in the publishing house of P. F. Collier...