When she was three years old, folk were already telling her grandmother, "Hattie Mae, this girl sho' can talk." Considering this poor black girl from the dusty plains of rural Mississippi grew up to be the global phenomenon that is Oprah Winfrey, the Queen of Chat, her grandmother's remarks were either portentous or a sweet understatement of epic proportions.
Oprah began her love of words by sticking inspiring quotes on her wall and mirror. Today, America's favourite girlfriend reigns over a media empire worth an estimated $725 million. At 46, she's on track to being the first African American billionaire.
The Oprah Winfrey Show is seen in 160 countries and is the highest rated talk show of all time, reaching 33 million viewers. Her website, Oprah.com, is visited by 1.3 million people daily. Earlier this year, she cofounded Oxygen, a US cable station for women. Last month she toured three cities with her Personal Growth Summit (who said only heads of state held summits?) with little more than an advertisement in O: The Oprah Magazine. Oh, yes. She has just launched her own glossy. The premiere May/June issue sold over 1.6 million copies. Hearst Publications had to print an extra 500,000 copies. The publishers claim 600,000 subscription orders since its launch, without a direct mail campaign.
Oprah, the Empress of Empathy, is now a global brand.
O's success is startling considering the competition from Vanity Fair, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living and Talk. But what is most ground-breaking is its mission. It does what other glossies only dream of. It makes women feel good about themselves. (My evidence here is not empirical.) There are no advertisements for tobacco or diet pills. Plus, it steers clear of pure celebrity voyeurism. Oprah's editorial appears on page two; readers of most US magazines must plough through pages of advertisements first.
"We live in a world that observes our external selves," she enthuses. "What's significant, however, is finding a deeper meaning so that your life has a better balance and wholeness."
Already, I've double-clicked on her website and signed up for a subscription. Embrace those buzzwords: balance, wholeness, meaning, external selves. You should remember your spirit, achieve authentic power - not being defined by your possessions or other false gods - and live life in the moment. Her words of wisdom are highlighted in O as pull quotes alongside those of Eleanor Roosevelt, Maya Angelou and, don't sniff, the first-century philosopher Epicetus. One Oprah-ism reads: "The only courage you ever need is the courage to live your heart's desire." It's both touchingly simple, yet eerily reminiscent of the Good Witch Glinda in The Wizard of Oz. But don't let that stop you: it's 21st century philosophy, Oprah-style.
The first issue of O has a coup de celebrity. For the first time Camille Cosby talks about how she and comic actor husband Bill survived their son's murder. Curiously, Oprah asks Camille, "Are you aware of your womaness?" Jane Fonda discusses life post-Ted Turner in the July/August issue. Oprah is one of us - but has unprecedented access to the super-famous.
Likewise, her features are dripping with the personal development that earned her media titles like the High Priestess of Positivity. It works for me. A non-believing friend accused me of hero worship when he heard I subscribed to O magazine. I denied every treacherous word, before turning on my heels. "If you'll excuse me," I snorted, with Oprah's magazine in hand, "I'm off to spend some quality time with someone who truly enriches my life . . . me!" As all Oprahites know, to love thyself is key.
O even has portable inspiration: cut-outable bookmarks and quotes, including Martin Luther King's: "Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame but greatness, because greatness is determined by service." I'll buy that. If you've seen the television show, these quotes won't come as a surprise. But it doesn't hurt to have them written down. That's another Oprah-ism. If your company has a corporate mission statement, should not you?
So, here's the main clause. O may be too serene, harmonious, other-worldly or downright preachy for some people's taste. (Men and children get the short shrift.) But it gives quality advice. Between the toughtalking, take-no-prisoners psychologist Dr Phil McGraw, author of Relationship Rescue, and the more new age offerings of Gary Zukav (AKA Yoda), author of Soul Stories, our basic instincts - both spiritual and practical - are well met. It's beautifully produced with contributors from photographer Patrick Demarchelier to Alice Walker, author of The Colour Purple. (Oprah the Actress was nominated for an Oscar in the 1986 film version.)
O fully reflects the tenor of her television show, her name, her brand. But while embracing the philosophies of Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, it subtly distances itself from feminist politics and the radicalism of the Civil Rights Movement, says Dr Elaine Sisson, senior lecturer at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology. "It's about a secular humanism, individual responsibility and has Oprah's hand all over it. It mentions a lot about female friendship, but there are no features about men or lovers." Children mostly appear in advertisements.
It's very easy to be cynical reading O, Sisson adds, but, unlike many other women's magazines, it doesn't attempt to unnerve the reader with questions like: Are you earning enough money? "Advertisers have represented ethnicity carefully. The language of feminism is married to the language of consumerism. Interestingly, the word spirit, which is non-alienating, is used rather than God."
Still, non-believers have accused Oprah of being a religious zealot. A prophet lives among us, they snarl, and her name is Oprah. They've got that right. As 21st century spiritualists go - she's black, she's a woman, she grew up poor and rose above horrific childhood abuse - Oprah the Prophet is right on schedule. And O is her bible.
Staff were surprised by how much of a hands-on role she took sprinkling her goodwill and particular brand of magic. "It was a nightmare," one Hearst insider said bluntly. "I know that to you guys the Oprah name is a brand," America's favourite girlfriend responded, "but for me it's the way I behave and everything I stand for."
Of all her buzzwords, "brand" is probably the most important. If O does not accurately represent her, Oprah Inc will suffer, which is why her staff must sign lifetime confidentiality contracts. After years of labouring over tabloid lies of stapled stomachs and life-threatening diets, she has realised they can't hurt her brand. A magazine that's not consistent with her values, on the other hand, will.
"Oprah's capitalised on her beliefs and she's never lost sight of that," says John Grace, a former branding consultant to Calvin Klein and executive director at Interbrand, New York, an international corporate identity firm. "She's proven time and again that she will not corrupt those values. As long as the basis for the relationship with her audience is trust and honesty, the audience will come back."
Unlike perennial blonde New England lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, Oprah does not peddle waspish etiquette and embroidered pillow cases. She peddles life strategies. Oprah is the anti-Martha. If we no longer believe she's nice, it will corrode her brand. Her private pains are, inevitably, public property. When Oprah cries, we cry. She takes tragedy out of the realm of sensationalism, making it real. To paraphrase the Great and Powerful Oz, she has something that few other interviewers have: compassion, much of which she learnt the hard way.
Her childhood has echoes of a Grimm fairytale. Born in 1954 in Mississippi, she was abandoned by her unwed mother and lived on her grandparents' pig farm. Her mother took her back at six but was shunned when she bore another child. "My half-sister and mother slept inside," Oprah has said. "I was put out on the porch." At eight, her father took care of her for just over a year before her mother took her back. At nine, she was raped by a cousin and molested over five years. This totally destabilised her. Her father took her back, pregnant, at 14. She lost the baby soon after it was born.
Since then, her rise has been meteoric. Living in Nashville with her father, she won state championships in speech and drama. She was elected Miss Fire Prevention at 16, which led to an after-school job as a news reader. By 19 she was Miss Black Tennessee. At 29, she became the first black anchor on a Nashville nightly news show. Next, she became a co-anchor in Baltimore. In 1984, unsuited to hard news, she moved to AM Chicago as co-host. This finally led to The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was syndicated in 1986.
In the July/August O, she says: "Having a history of abuse also meant a history of not being able to set boundaries. Once your personal boundaries have been violated as a child, it's difficult to regain the courage to stop people from stepping on you. You fear being rejected for who you really are." In 1994, she vowed: "Never again will I do anything for anyone that I do not feel directly from my heart." She abandoned sensational TV, leaving the scraps for Jenny Jones and Jerry Springer.
Oprah, who's own name was misspelt in naming her after the biblical figure Orpah, set up her TV book club in 1996 "to get America reading again". With the Oprah seal of approval, 10,000 copies sold today could be 500,000 tomorrow. Her choices vary in style, from Bernhard Schlink's The Reader to Maeve Binchy's Tara Road. Some are criticised as too middle-of-the-road, but she sticks to issue-led choices: friendship and racial-sexual politics. In O, she says: "The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you are able to give. If you think something is missing from your life or you're not getting what you deserve, remember that there's no Yellow Brick Road. You lead life; it doesn't lead you."
Okay, another Oz reference, but inner journeys work for me. Martha Stewart, pruning her blueberry bushes on the cover of Martha Stewart Living, on the other hand, doesn't. Call me insecure, but I do not trust that woman with a secateurs. Oprah, however, swathed in flowing red and sailing onto the cover of the latest issue of O, turns my head. Yes, I trust her. Yes, I admire her. But, more important than all of this, I believe.
O: The Oprah Magazine, which is bimonthly, is available through Easons or by subscription through Oprah.com. The Oprah Winfrey Show is on weekdays on RTE 1 at 1.55 p.m.