Little Known Facts About Well Known People

by Dale Carnegie

In this book Dale Carnegie wrote about characters from all walks of life, some of them his contemporary and some from history and has tried to highlight their habits, including Albert Einstein, Edgar Allan Poe, Cleopatra, Lenin, Christopher Columbus, and more...

Genres: History

162 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Dale Carnegie was an American writer and teacher of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. Born into poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), a bestseller that remains popular today. He also wrote How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), Lincoln the Unknown (1932), and several other books.
One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other people's behavior by changing one's behavior towards them.

Reviews

[Donna Kremer]

Although I haven’t rated this highly, this is still an interesting book. And who knew that Dale Carnegie was humorous? I laughed out loud in multiple places including after having read, “…all three of these girls didn’t have on enough clothes to make a respectable bathing suit for a humming bird.”

[Pawan]

http://iandbooks.wordpress.com/

This is probably Dale Carnegie’s least known book. He is so much more famous for his book “How to win friends and influence people” but I will write about that some other time. When I picked up this book, I had great hopes to learn interesting stuff about well-known people and to some extent it satisfied that curiosity as well. Also, the book is written in same easy-going flow as he has used in other more famous books. But “Little known facts about well-known people” is not in the same league as the other books.

He has picked up characters from all walks of life, some of them his contemporary and some from history and has tried to highlight their quirks and interesting habits. All these little stories are interesting but they fail to make a coherent thought across the characters and also in the story of same character. Sometimes, he has also digressed and while writing about one person, he has picked up a fact and then starts writing about other people with similar history. One specific case is of O. Henry. He tells that Henry started writing during his jail term and then starts telling about many other great authors who started their writing career during jail terms.

Also, his contemporary characters are more than 100 years old now and do not evoke as much interest in me. Some of these little known facts have become public knowledge through other forums like movies and Internet and have lost interest. Even with all these backdrops the book is a breezy simple reading and keeps you interested enough to take it to the end. But there is little that I have taken away from the book.

[Ruchir Gandhi]

The variety of stories which are of different people which have accomplished something or wasted everything and in betweens. Though writing is good but some personalities take in book not so interesting and sometimes boring.

[Maaris]

Brrr. Pigem nõrk. Selline ... No mitte just kehvasti kirjutet, aga justkui odava populaarsuse või kiire müügi nimel kokku klopsitud üllitis. Kui parasjagu mitte midagi muud käeulatuses pole, võib ju lugeda, aga jah, nagu öeldud, nauding on kesisevõitu.

[Devonne West]

This book has been on my list of "to read" for quite some time. Carnegie writes in an easy style and grade-school children could easily read this but if those children are like me, many people mentioned in the books are not people of which I have much knowledge. Very intriguing for sure.

[Myint Aung]

good

[Swe Gyi]

Entertaining.