Scottish author and reformer. SAMUEL SMILES is best known today as a prolific author of books that extol the virtues of self-help, character and duty, and of biographies lauding the achievements of famous civil and mechanical engineers among whom are Brindley, Smeaton, Rennie, Boulton, Watt, Telford and the Stephensons, but, oddly, not Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
His books