Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie

Abstract

THE life-histories of remarkable men always have interest and value. Few are more fascinating than that of Andrew Carnegie, who began his business career as a telegraph messenger boy at two and a half dollars a week, and step by step, through many trials and triumphs, became the great steel-master, built up a colossal industry, amassed an enormous fortune, and then deliberately and systematically gave away the whole of it for the enlightenment and betterment of mankind. No doubt the element of chance has some part in such great success as that of Carnegie. But it is only a subordinate part. This autobiography enables us to see clearly enough that it was “character” inborn and nurtured by parents—sturdy and high-principled, though brought by the vicissitudes of business to great poverty, even to actual hunger—which determined Carnegie's career. Character made him courageously and honestly avail himself of the opportunities which “chance” placed to his hand.

Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie.

Pp. xii + 385. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1920.) 25s. net.