A Publisher and His Friends (Esprios Classics)

Samuel Smiles (1812-1904) was a Scottish author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform 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 raised Smiles to celebrity status almost overnight. In 1837 he wrote articles for the Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle and the Leeds Times campaigning for parliamentary reform. In November 1838 Smiles was invited to become the editor of the Leeds Times a position he accepted and filled until 1842.