26 Facts About Samuel Smiles

Samuel Smiles was a British author and government reformer.

Samuel Smiles studied at a local school, leaving at the age of 14.

Samuel Smiles apprenticed to be a doctor under Dr Robert Lewins.

Samuel Smiles's father died in the 1832 cholera epidemic, but Smiles was enabled to continue with his studies because he was supported by his mother.

Samuel Smiles ran the small family general store firm in the belief that the "Lord will provide".

In 1838 Samuel Smiles was offered the editorship of the reformist paper, the Leeds Times.

Samuel Smiles spent the next twenty years in the city, moving to live on Woodhouse Cliff in 1847.

In November 1838, Samuel Smiles was invited to become the editor of the Leeds Times, a position he accepted and filled until 1842.

In May 1840, Samuel 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 MPs to qualify for Parliament, other than by winning an election; pay for MPs; and annual Parliaments.

On 7 December 1843, Samuel Smiles married Sarah Ann Holmes Dixon in Leeds.

In 1861 Samuel Smiles published an article from the Quarterly, renamed Workers Earnings, Savings, and Strikes.

Samuel Smiles claimed poverty in many instances was caused by habitual improvidence:.

In 1866, Samuel Smiles became president of the National Provident Institution but left in 1871, after suffering a debilitating stroke.

Samuel Smiles claimed that the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 was "one of the most valuable that has been placed on the statute-book in modern times".

Samuel Smiles was not very successful in his careers as a doctor and journalist.

Samuel Smiles joined several cooperative ventures, but they failed for lack of capital.

Samuel Smiles finally found intellectual refuge and national fame in the isolation of self-help.

Samuel Smiles should have the means of education, and of exerting freely all the powers of his godlike nature.

In 1859, Samuel Smiles self-published the book, retaining the copyright, while he paid John Murray a ten per cent commission.

Samuel Smiles intended to publish a book titled Conduct, in 1896.

Samuel Smiles submitted it to his publisher, but John Murray declined to publish the book.

Sir George Reid was commissioned to paint Samuel Smiles's portrait, completed in 1877 and now in the collection of the National Gallery, London.

On 16 April 1904, Samuel Smiles died in Kensington in his 92nd year, London and was buried in Brompton Cemetery.

Samuel Smiles's grandchildren include Sir Walter Samuel Smiles, an Ulster Unionist Party MP.

Samuel Smiles recalled the appearance of Self-Help, by Samuel Smiles, who 40 or 50 years ago gave lectures at Leeds encouraging young men to engage in self-improvement.

Samuel Smiles's books were read with extraordinary avidity, but there arose a school which taught the existence of the beautiful and to do nothing.