The Spirit of Self-Help: A Life of Samuel Smiles. Inscribed by the Author. Scarce

Hunter , John

ISBN 10: 0856835129 / ISBN 13: 9780856835124

Published by London. Shepheard-Walwyn Publishers, 2017

About this Item

London. Shepheard-Walwyn Publishers. 2017. No later dates shown. Hard Cover. Medium 8vo 9½" x 6  [24cm x 15cm]. 290 pp and detailed end notes. Dark brown textured cloth boards with gilt titles to the spine. Frontispiece of Samuel Smiles age 47 in the year 'Self-Help' was published. 15 further illustrations in the text. Inscribed to 'Griselda with good wishes' by the author direct to the title page. Scarce in that respect. Jacket shows portrait of Smiles c. 1877 by George Reid, oil on canvas. Book and jacket are fine/as new with no wear. This is the first full biography of the man who, in the industrial on-rush of the 19th century, gave the world the idea of self-help as a go-to strategy in an age of frenzied change. Using Smiles's unpublished correspondence with family, friends and publishers, and drawing extensively on his writing, The Spirit of Self-Help tells the very human story of how Samuel Smiles came from a small-town, small-time family in Scotland to become, by turn and sometimes together, medical doctor, campaigning journalist, railway executive, best-selling author, and global celebrity. This is both a biography and a reflection on themes of success and failure, the individual and society, moral and material worth, and the relationships between these sets of ideas. His seminal work Self-Help (1859), promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and laissez-faire government. It has been called "the Bible of mid-Victorian liberalism" and had lasting effects on British political thought. The dust jacket will be protected with a new inert archival Brodart sleeve which is removable. Please contact us if you would like any more information or additional images. Postage price quoted outside the UK is for a book up to 1kg using UPS or Transglobal Express. For books sent within the UK, there will be no extra charge for books up to 2kg which are sent by Royal Mail. Postage quoted in the UK is the actual cost (£3.45). All books are sent in protective packing and custom book box. If your book is intended as a gift, please let us know and we will gift wrap it free of charge with a card and any message.

Seller Inventory # 25FEB20015

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Spirit of Self-Help: A Life of Samuel Smiles. Inscribed by the Author. Scarce
• Publisher: London. Shepheard-Walwyn Publishers
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0856835129
• ISBN 13: 9780856835124
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Weight: 850 grams
• Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

When Dominic Sandbrook quoted Samuel Smiles extensively in his TV series on nineteenth-century work and leisure; when Ian Hislop flourished a copy of Smiles's Self-Help ("the book that launched the genre") in his programme on 'Workers or Shirkers?'; when Andy Burnham reflected publicly on "lack of aspiration" as a main cause of Britain's north-south divide - all were testifying to the intense topicality of the work and ideas of Samuel Smiles. This is the first full biography of the man who, in the industrial on-rush of the 19th century, gave the world the idea of self-help as a go-to strategy in an age of frenzied change. Using Smiles's unpublished correspondence with family, friends and publishers, and drawing extensively on his writing, The Spirit of Self-Help tells the very human story of how Samuel Smiles came from a small-town, small-time family in Scotland to become, by turn and sometimes together, medical doctor, campaigning journalist, railway executive, best-selling author, and global celebrity. This is both a biography and a reflection on themes of success and failure, the individual and society, moral and material worth, and the relationships between these sets of ideas. Driven by its subject, The Spirit of Self-Help revolves around the oldest idea of all - the possibility of happiness, for everyone, in all possible circumstances. In that sense, though set in the 19th century, this is an intensely topical book.

About the Author

John Hunter was born in Northern Ireland, schooled in Belfast, and awarded a degree in history and political science at Trinity College, Dublin. After a successful career in the communications industry and in manufacturing, he studied at Birkbeck College, University of London, taking an MA in Victorian Studies. The Spirit of Self-Help is his first book.