Publisher and His Friends

by Samuel Smiles

Memoir and Correspondence of John Murray; With an Account of the Origin and Progress of the House, 1768-1843.

2 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904), was a Scottish author and government reformer, who campaigned on a Chartist platform. But he concluded that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His masterpiece, Self-Help (1859), promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and laissez-faire government. It has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism", and it raised Smiles to celebrity status almost overnight.