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Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) 

The author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, one of the most successful books ever written, was born into an impoverished family on a farm in rural Maryville, Missouri, as Dale Carnagey in 1888. (He would change his name in 1919 to mimic Andrew Carnegie, the Gilded Age industrialist who inspired him, but to whom he was not related.) Interested in debate and public speaking from an early age, Carnegie graduated from high school and then State Teachers College (now called the University of Central Missouri) in 1908. After having some success as a traveling salesman, Carnegie decided to pursue public speaking and acting in 1911. 

Carnegie’s life took a crucial turn in 1912 when he talked the manager of the YMCA that he was living at on 125th Street in New York City into allowing him to teach public speaking at the facility. The early 20th century was a boisterous period of rapid economic growth and opportunity in the United States, and Carnegie effectively identified and addressed a desire among American men to be more self-confident, outgoing, and successful. Before, during, and after World War I, Carnegie’s teaching approach and techniques evolved as his success grew.

As the “Dale Carnegie Course” grew in notoriety and success, Carnegie began publishing books on public speaking to spread his ideas even further, starting with a book he co-authored in 1915 (The Art of Public Speaking), followed in 1920 by Public Speaking: The Standard Course of the United Y.M.C A. Schools. He published Public Speaking: A Practical Course for Business Men in 1926, which was revised as Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business in 1932. In 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People, which explores sales and management, was published to enormous success that has persisted to this day. Carnegie died in 1955, but an edition of this best-known work published in 1981 still ranks year in and year out as a top seller. In 1948, Carnegie also wrote a book called How to Stop Worrying and Start Living that focuses on the connection between self-awareness and personal happiness.

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