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#2 in Self-HelpNew Release

Self-Help; with Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance

by Samuel Smiles

The book that named the genre — and outsold most novels of its century.

Smiles built his case out of dozens of short biographies: inventors, engineers, potters, and artists who got where they did through persistence rather than advantage. Published in 1859, it is the origin of the phrase 'self-help' as a category of book, and the template for the success literature that followed.