Selling 20,000 copies in the first year after its publication in 1859, Samuel Smiles' Self-Help made its author an overnight celebrity and much sought-after guru for many. It had sold over a quarter of a million copies by Smiles' death in 1904. The social campaigner Robert Blatchford said of Self-Help that it was "one of the most delightful and invigorating books it has been my happy fortune to meet with."
Selling 20,000 copies in the first year after its publication in 1859, Samuel Smiles' Self-Help made its author an overnight celebrity and much sought-after guru for many. It had sold over a quarter of a million copies by Smiles' death in 1904. The social campaigner Robert Blatchford said of Self-Help that it was "one of the most delightful and invigorating books it has been my happy fortune to meet with."