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Early Life
Samuel Smiles was a Scottish author and social reformer born in 1812. Born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, Smiles was the son of Janet Wilson of Dalkeith and Samuel Smiles of Haddington. He was one of eleven surviving children. While his family members were strict Reformed Presbyterians, he did not practice. He studied at a local school, leaving at the age of 14. He apprenticed to be a doctor under Dr. Robert Lewins and went to Edinburgh University in 1829 to study medicine. While in Edinburgh, Smiles became involved in the campaign for parliamentary reform.

In 1832 his father died.

From 1838 to 1842 he edited the progressive and reformist Leeds Times.

In May 1840, he became Secretary to the Leeds Parliamentary Reform Association.

From 1845 to 1866 he worked in railway administration, and in 1857 he published a life of the inventor and founder of the railways, George Stephenson.

In 1854 he moved to the post of Secretary of the South Eastern Railway. In 1866 he became President of the National Provident Institution, but left in 1871 after a serious stroke.

Smiles believed in the importance of hard work, self-education, perseverance in the face of adversity and a will to excel in business. He had a special interest in inventors and engineers such as Richard Arkwright, James Watt and William Lee whose inventions were central to the industrial revolution.

Self-Help
Self-Help is largely a collection of idealized portraits and mini-biographies of self-made men who achieved success in business or industry, often from humble backgrounds.

Self-Help was published privately at Smiles' own expense. 250,000 copies had been sold by the end of the century, and it was widely translated. Smiles wrote many other books, including Lives of the Engineers (3 vol., 1861–62; 5 vol., enlarged ed., 1874), a pioneer study in economic history; and an Autobiography (ed. by T. Mackay, 1905).

Personal Life
In 1845 he married Sarah Anne Holmes.

Influence on William Lever
Lever drew heavily on the principles of Smiles' Self-Help – and re-read it many times over his life both for practical advice and inspiration. He also gave copies to young people who showed promised. One copy which we know of was inscribed with this quote, "'It is impossible for me to say how much I owe to the fact that in my early youth I obtained a copy of Smiles’ Self-Help' William Lever"

The Congregationalist values of his family were absorbed by Lever from a very early age. These values were consolidated in his teenage years when he was given a copy of Samuel Smiles’ Self-Help book as a sixteenth birthday gift.