Samuel Smiles , (born Dec.
23, 1812, Haddington, Berwickshire, Scot.
--died April 16, 1904, London), Scottish author best known for his didactic work Self-Help (1859), which, with its successors, Character (1871), Thrift (1875), and Duty (1880), enshrined the basic Victorian values associated with the gospel of work.
One of 11 children left fatherless in 1832, Smiles learned the meaning of self-reliance.
Although he qualified in medicine at Edinburgh in.
