Samuel Smiles

Smiles, Samuel (1812-1904). Popularizer of the dominant social values of middle-class Victorian Britain. By profession a doctor, Smiles worked for a time as a radical journalist in Leeds before settling down as secretary (i.e. chief executive officer) to a succession of railway companies. In his leisure time he wrote a series of books, of which Self-Help (1859) was the most successful, selling over 250, 000 copies during his lifetime.