Editing Samuel Smiles (section)

==''Self-Help''==
Smiles was not very successful in his careers as a doctor and journalist. He joined several cooperative ventures, but they failed for lack of capital. Disillusioned, he turned away from middle-class utopianism. He finally found intellectual refuge and national fame in the isolation of self-help.<ref>Robert J. Morris, "Tommy Smiles and the genesis of Self-Help; the retreat to a petit bourgeois utopia." ''Historical Journal'' 24.1 (1981): 89-109 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638906 online].</ref>

The origins of his most famous book, ''[[Self-Help (Smiles book)|Self-Help]]'', lay in a speech he gave in March 1845 in response to a request by a Mutual Improvement Society, published as, ''The Education of the Working Classes''. In it Smiles said:
{{Quote|1=I would not have any one here think that, because I have mentioned individuals who have raised themselves by self-education from poverty to social eminence, and even wealth, these are the chief marks to be aimed at. That would be a great fallacy. ''Knowledge'' is of itself one of the highest enjoyments. The ignorant man passes through the world dead to all pleasures, save those of the senses&nbsp;... Every human being has a great mission to perform, noble faculties to cultivate, a vast destiny to accomplish. He should have the means of education, and of exerting freely all the powers of his godlike nature.{{sfnp|Smiles|1956|pp=70–71|ps=}}}}

The newly founded [[Routledge]] publishing house rejected publishing ''Self-Help'' in 1855.<ref>Peter W. Sinnema, 'Introduction', in Samuel Smiles, ''Self-Help'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. xvi.</ref> Twenty years later Smiles was seated next to [[George Routledge]] at a dinner, and he said to him, "And when, Dr. Smiles, are we to have the honour of publishing one of your books?"; Smiles replied that Mr. Routledge already had the honour of rejecting ''Self-Help''.<ref name="Smiles, p. 88">Smiles, p. 88.</ref> Although [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] was willing to publish ''Self-Help'' on a half-profits system, Smiles rejected this as he did not want the book to lose its anecdotes. In 1859, Smiles self-published the book, retaining the copyright, while he paid John Murray a ten per cent commission.<ref name="Smiles, p. 88"/> It sold 20,000 copies within one year of its publication. By the time of Smiles's death in 1904 it had sold over a quarter of a million copies.<ref name="Sinnema, p. vii">Sinnema, p. vii.</ref> ''Self-Help'' "elevated [Smiles] to celebrity status: almost overnight, he became a leading pundit and much-consulted guru".<ref>Peter W. Sinnema, 'Introduction', in Samuel Smiles, ''Self-Help'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. vii.</ref> Smiles "suddenly became the fashion and he was deluged with requests that he should lay foundation stones, sit for his portrait, present prizes to orphan children, make speeches from platforms. The simple fellow was pleased with these invitations, but naturally he could not accept. He had his work to do&nbsp;... his duty did not lie on any public platform&nbsp;... It lay in his office with his Work".<ref>Smiles, p. 94.</ref>