In February 1941, during a twelve-inch snowstorm in New York City, Neville published his first book, Your Faith Is Your Fortune. Attendance that first night fell far short of his expectations -- only about 150 came out of an anticipated 500, unable to get through the snow. That same year, his family cabled him that his mother was terminally ill in Barbados (wartime Britain having kept them from telling him sooner), prompting him to give up planned vacation reservations to Maine and travel to Barbados instead.