![Self Help [Hardcover] Smiles, Samuel](https://vintagebookshoppe.com/wp-content/uploads/imported/Self-Help-137500235X.jpg)
Description
Original 1881 hardcover edition. Former library copy. Gold lettering on the cover and spine is still clear. Cover has normal wear. Pages are clean.
This 1881 edition of Samuel Smiles’ “Self Help” is a remarkable artifact from the golden age of self-improvement literature. Smiles, a Scottish author and reformer, pioneered the genre with his inspirational tales of perseverance and hard work. “Self Help” became an immediate bestseller upon its release in 1859, striking a chord with the Victorian ethos of industriousness and upward mobility.
This copy bears the hallmarks of its era, with the embossed gold lettering and ex-library markings evoking the reading rooms and lending libraries that helped disseminate Smiles’ empowering message. While showing its age through the worn covers, the book’s clean interior pages invite readers to immerse themselves in Smiles’ rousing prose. For collectors, this early edition offers a tangible link to the 19th-century self-help movement and its profound impact on popular culture.
