Dale Carnegie: Self-Improvement Pioneer and Author
Dale Carnegie (November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer and teacher of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. He was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), a bestseller that remains popular today.
Early Life and Education
Carnegie was born on a farm in Maryville, Missouri, the second son of farmers Amanda Elizabeth Harbison and James William Carnagey. He grew up around Bedison, Missouri, and attended rural one-room schools. In 1904, at age 16, his family moved to a farm in Warrensburg, Missouri. As a youth, he enjoyed public speaking and joined his school’s debate team, completing his high school education in 1906. He attended the State Teachers College in Warrensburg, graduating in 1908.
Career and Achievements
Carnegie’s first job after college was selling correspondence courses to ranchers, followed by sales work for Armour & Company selling bacon, soap, and lard. He made his sales territory in South Omaha, Nebraska, the national leader for the firm. In 1911, after saving $200, he quit sales to pursue his dream of becoming a Chautauqua lecturer. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York but found little success as an actor, though he played Dr. Hartley in a road show of Polly of the Circus.
Returning to New York, Carnegie lived at the YMCA on 125th Street, where he persuaded the manager to allow him to teach public speaking in exchange for 80% of the net proceeds. In his first session in 1912, he ran out of material and improvised by asking students to speak about “something that made them angry,” discovering that the technique made speakers unafraid to address a public audience. From this debut, the Dale Carnegie Course evolved. By 1914, he was earning $500 every week. In 1916, he conducted a sold-out lecture at Carnegie Hall. He changed his last name’s spelling from Carnagey around 1922 because, as he explained, “none of his friends or correspondents spelled it correctly.”
His first collection of writings was Public Speaking: a Practical Course for Business Men (1926), later retitled Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business (1932). In 1936, Simon & Schuster published How to Win Friends and Influence People, which became a bestseller from its debut. By the time of his death, the book had sold five million copies in 31 languages. He also wrote How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), Lincoln the Unknown (1932), and several other books. One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other people’s behavior by changing one’s behavior towards them. By Carnegie’s death, there had been 450,000 graduates of his Dale Carnegie Institute, and he had critiqued over 150,000 speeches in his participation in the adult education movement.
Notable Events and Milestones
During World War I, Carnegie served in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton. His draft card noted he had filed for conscientious objector status and was missing a forefinger. His first marriage ended in divorce in August 1931. On November 5, 1944, he married Dorothy Price Vanderpool, his former secretary, who had been divorced and had a daughter, Rosemary, from her first marriage. Carnegie and Dorothy had a daughter, Donna Dale. Carnegie died of Hodgkin lymphoma on November 1, 1955, at his home in Forest Hills, New York, and was buried in the Belton cemetery in Cass County, Missouri.
Additional Resources
For further information about Dale Carnegie’s life, works, and lasting influence on self-improvement education, readers are encouraged to consult Wikipedia and other biographical archives, which contain extensive details about his courses, publications, and the global reach of his teachings.
