Books by Samuel Smiles

This two-volume account of the life and friendships of the publisher John Murray (1778-1843), told largely through his voluminous correspondence, was published in 1891 by Samuel Smiles (1812-1904). Volume 1 commences with the beginnings of the firm in Scotland, and takes the story up to 1818.

This biography of civil engineer Thomas Telford (1757-1834) was published in 1867 by Samuel Smiles, author of Self-Help. Deriving from Smiles' three-volume Lives of the Engineers, it brings together accounts of road travel by earlier writers, and of Telford's own career as a builder of roads, bridges and canals.

One of the most popular Victorian writers, Samuel Smiles (1812-1904) made his name with Self-Help (1859) and his Lives of the Engineers (1861-2). Left incomplete at his death but published in 1905, his straightforward and unpretentious autobiography will interest readers fascinated by the Victorian drive for self-improvement.

In this 1867 book, Samuel Smiles examines the part played in British life by Protestants who left France to escape religious persecution or were expelled after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Smiles describes the history of the Huguenots and discusses some of their famous descendants.

Following the success of his Life of George Stephenson in 1857, the author and social reformer Samuel Smiles (1812-1904) published this three-volume work between 1861 and 1862. Spanning from the Roman to Victorian period, it provides fascinating biographies of Britain's most notable engineers, including detailed accounts of their pioneering work.

A bestseller in 1859, Self-Help became one of Victorian Britain's most important statements on the allied virtues of hard work, thrift, and perseverance. Smiles's book is the precursor of today's motivational and self-improvement literature and encapsulated the aspirational Victorian desire for social advancement.