Samuel Smiles was Born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland on December 1812. He was one of the eleven surviving children. In 1829, he went to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh where he developed an interest in politics. In December 1843, Smiles married Sarah Ann Holmes Dixon, with whom he had five children. In 1857, he published The Life of George Stephenson, a biography of the inventor and founder of the railways, George Stephenson. Self-Help; with illustrations of Character and Conduct was published in 1859. Perseverance was added to the subtitle in the second edition of 1866. The outcome of a series of lectures on self-improvement, which smiles had given in Leeds. Reflecting the spirit of its age, it identified the capacity for self-improvement in the working classes and drawing upon the success stories of the self-made millionaires, instilled in them a desire to succeed. This masterpiece has been called ‘the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism.’ It has been widely translated and continues to remain a bestseller.