Self-Help. With Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance.

SMILES, Samuel.

$600.00

Item Number: 122411

London: John Murray, 1908.

Finely bound example of Smith’s best-selling work on the self-improvement; an embodiment of the ideologies of mid-Victorian liberalism. Octavo, bound in full contemporary tree calf with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt central coat-of-arms to the front panel, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges marbled. In fine condition. A fine example, desirable bound in full contemporary tree calf. 

First published in 1859, Scottish author and reformer Samuel Smiles' Self-Help sold 20,000 copies within one year of its publication, and by the time of Smiles' death in 1904, had sold over a quarter of a million. Self-Help "elevated [Smiles] to celebrity status: almost overnight, he became a leading pundit and much-consulted guru". English historian Asa Briggs said of the work, "Self-help was one of the favorite mid-Victorian virtues. Relying on yourself was preferred morally--and economically--to depending on others. It was an expression of character even when it did not endure....The progressive development of society ultimately depended, it was argued, not on collective action or on parliamentary legislation but on the prevalence of practices of self-help." Social activist Robert Blatchford referred to it as "one of the most delightful and invigorating books it has been my happy fortune to meet with".