The New International Encyclopædia/Smiles, Samuel

SMILES, Samuel (1812-1904). An English writer, born at Haddington, Scotland. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. At twenty he began practice at Haddington and later at Leeds. He subsequently gave up his profession to assume the editorship of the Leeds Times. In 1845 he was appointed secretary of the Leeds and Thirsk Railway, and in 1854 of the Southeastern Railway, retiring in 1866. In recognition of his services to letters, the University of Edinburgh honored him with the degree LL.D. (1878). As early as 1838 Smiles published, at his own expense, Physical Education, and in 1857 a Life of George Stephenson His Lives of the Engineers appeared in 1861. He gained immense success with Self Help (1859), practical talks to young men. It has been translated into seventeen languages. Similar books are Character (1871), Thrift (1875), Duty (1880), and Life and Labor (1885).