story full of inspiration.

In 1845, at the request of a committee of working men, he made an address
to the society which they represented, on "The Education of the Working
Classes." This excited such favorable comment that he determined to enlarge
the lecture into a book. Thus "Self-Help" was written. But it was not to be
published for many years. In 1854 the manuscript was submitted anonymously
to a London publisher, and was politely declined. Undaunted, he laid it
aside and began an account of the life of George Stephenson, with whom he
had been associated in railway work. This biography was a great success.

Thus encouraged, he took from the drawer, where it had lain for four years,
the rejected manuscript of "Self-Help," rewrote it, and offered it to his
publishers. It was not his intention, even then, to use his name as author,
so little did he think of himself. But, listening to the advice of friends,
he permitted his name to appear. Very soon he was famous, for thirty-five
thousand copies were sold during the first two years. In less than forty
years two hundred and fifty-eight thousand copies have been disposed of in
England alone. American publishers reprinted the book almost at once, and
it soon became a favorite in school libraries in many States. It was
translated into Dutch, German, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Czech,
Croatian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Danish, Polish, Chinese,
Siamese, Arabic, and several dialects of India.

But the author did not look on the fame and fortune brought to him by his
book as his chief reward. It had been his desire to be helpful to the
plodding, discouraged men and boys. As he expressed it himself: "It seemed
to me that the most important results in daily life are to be obtained, not
through the exercise of extraordinary powers, but through the energetic use
of simple means, and ordinary qualities, with which all have been more or