Born in Haddington, Scotland, Smiles was the eldest of eleven children. He left school at the age of 14 and was apprenticed to a doctor, eventually enabling him to study medicine at Edinburgh University. While studying and after graduating he campaigned for parliamentary reform, contributing articles to the Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle and the Leeds Times.
In 1838 he was invited to become the editor for the Leeds Times, a position which he accepted and filled until 1845. In May 1840 Smiles became Secretary to the Leeds Parliamentary Reform Association, an organisation that held to the six objectives of Chartism: universal suffrage for all men over the age of 21; equal-sized electoral districts; voting by secret ballot; an end to the need of MP's to qualify for Parliament, other than by winning an election; pay for MP's; and annual Parliaments.
In 1845 Samuel Smiles left the Leeds Times and became secretary to the Leeds and Thirsk Railway and then, nine years later, the South-Eastern Railway.
In the late '40s, Smiles became concerned about the advocation of physical force by Chartists Feargus O'Connor and George Julian Harney, though he seems to have agreed with them that the movement's current tactics were not effective, saying that "mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society."
In the 1850s he seems to have completely given up on parliamentary reform. In 1859 he published his most best known book: Self-Help, which preached industry, thrift and self-improvement. He followed this success by Character (1871), Thrift (1875) and Duty (1880). Smiles also wrote a series of biographies of men who had achieved success through hard-work. These included Lives of the Engineers (1861), Industrial Biography, Iron Workers and Tool Makers (1863) and Men of Invention and Industry. (1884).
External links