Samuel Smiles - Smiles' writings, The reliability of Smiles' work

Writer and social reformer, born in Haddington, East Lothian, E Scotland, UK. He studied at Edinburgh, and settled as a surgeon in Leeds, but left medicine for journalism, editing the Leeds Times (1838–42), and becoming involved in railway companies until 1866. His main work was a guide to self-improvement, Self-Help (1859), with its short lives of great men and the admonition ‘Do thou likewise’. He also wrote many biographical and moral books.

Born in Haddington, Smiles was the eldest of eleven children. 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;

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.

As editor of the Leeds Times, he advocated radical causes ranging from women's suffrage to free trade to parliamentary reform.

Smiles' writings

Smiles is best known today as the writer of books extolling virtues of self help, and biographies lauding the achievements of 'heroic' engineers.

He was a prolific author of books and articles.

Self help topics

Self-Help, London, 1859 Character, London, 1871 Thrift, London, 1875 Duty, London, 1880 Life and Labour, London 1887

Biographical works

The Life of George Stephenson, London, 1857 The Story of The Life of George Stephenson, London, 1859 (abridgement of the above) Brief biographies, Boston, 1860 (articles reprinted from periodicals such as the Quarterly Review) Lives of the Engineers, 3 vol, London 1862 Vol 1, Early engineers - James Brindley, Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, Sir Hugh Myddleton, Capt John Perry Vol 2, Harbours, Lighthouses and Bridges - John Smeaton and John Rennie, (1761-1821) Vol 3, History of Roads - John Metcalfe and Thomas Telford Industrial Biography, London, 1863 Includes lives of Andrew Yarranton, Dud Dudley, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Clement, etc.. Boulton and Watt, London, 1865 The Huguenots: Their Settlements, Churches and Industries in England and Ireland, London, 1867 Lives of the Engineers, new ed. in 5 vols, London, 1874 (includes the lives of Stephenson and Boulton and Watt) Life of a Scotch Naturalist: Thomas Edward, London, 1875 George Moore, Merchant and Philanthropist, London & New York, 1878 Robert Dick, Baker of Thurso, Geologist and Botanist, London, 1878 Men of Invention and Industry, London, 1884 Phineas Pett, Francis Petit Smith, John Harrison, John Lombe, William Murdock, Frederic Koenig,The Walter family of The Times, William Clowes (Printer), Charles Bianconi, and chapters on Industry in Ireland, Shipbuilding in Belfast, Astronomers and students in humble life James Nasmyth, engineer, an autobiography, ed. Samuel Smiles, London, 1885 A Publisher and his Friends. Memoir and Correspondence of the Late John Murray, London, 1891 Jasmin. Barber, Poet, Philanthropist, London, 1891 Josiah Wedgwood, his Personal History, London, 1894 The Autobiography of Samuel Smiles, LLD, ed. Mackey, London, 1905

The growth of industrial archaeology in Britain from the 1960s caused a number of these titles to be reprinted, and a number are available on the Web from such sources as Project Gutenberg, noted below.

The reliability of Smiles' work

Jarvis discusses this exhaustively in his book, and it is clear that Smiles must never be taken as the last word on the lives of Victorian engineers.