Dale Carnegie (; spelled Carnagey until c. 1922; November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer and lecturer, and the developer of courses in

self-improvement Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...

, salesmanship,

corporate training Training and development involve improving the effectiveness of organizations and the individuals and teams within them. Training may be viewed as related to immediate changes in organizational effectiveness via organized instruction, while deve ...

, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. Born into poverty on a farm in

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, he was the author of ''

How to Win Friends and Influence People ''How to Win Friends and Influence People'' is a 1936 self-help book written by Dale Carnegie. Over 30 million copies have been sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time. Carnegie had been conducting business educati ...

'' (1936), a bestseller that remains popular today. He also wrote ''

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living How may refer to: * How (greeting), a word used in some misrepresentations of Native American/First Nations speech * How, an interrogative word in English grammar Art and entertainment Literature * ''How'' (book), a 2007 book by Dov Seid ...

'' (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.

Biography

Dale Carnegie was born November 24, 1888, on a farm in Maryville, Missouri. He was the second son of farmers Amanda Elizabeth Harbison (1858-1939) and her husband James William Carnagey (1852–1941). Carnegie grew up around

Bedison, Missouri Bedison is an unincorporated community in Nodaway County, in the U.S. state of Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with T ...

, southeast of Maryville and attended rural Rose Hill and Harmony one room schools. Carnegie would develop a longstanding friendship with another Maryville author,

Homer Croy Homer Croy (March 11, 1883 – May 24, 1965), was an American author and occasional screenwriter who wrote fiction and non-fiction books about life in the Midwestern United States. He also wrote several popular biographies, including books on ou ...

. In 1904, at age 16, his family moved to a farm in

Warrensburg, Missouri Warrensburg is a city in and the county seat of Johnson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 20,313 at the 2020 census. The Warrensburg Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of Johnson County. The city is a college town as it is ...

. As a youth, he enjoyed speaking in public and joined his school's debate team. Carnegie said he had to get up at 3 a.m. to feed the pigs and milk his parents' cows before going to school. During high school, he grew interested in the speeches at the various

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua br ...

assemblies. He completed his high school education in 1906. He attended State Teacher's College in Warrensburg, graduating in 1908. His first job after college was selling correspondence courses to ranchers. He moved on to selling bacon,

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, and lard for

Armour & Company Armour & Company was an American company and was one of the five leading firms in the meat packing industry. It was founded in Chicago, in 1867, by the Armour brothers led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's most ...

. He was successful to the point of making his sales territory of

South Omaha South Omaha is a former city and current district of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. During its initial development phase the town's nickname was "The Magic City" because of the seemingly overnight growth, due to the rapid development of the Union S ...

, Nebraska, the national leader for the firm. After saving $500, Dale Carnegie quit sales in 1911 in order to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a

lecturer. He ended up instead attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, but found little success as an actor, though it is written that he played the role of Dr. Hartley in a road show of '' Polly of the Circus''. When the production ended, he returned to New York, living at the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

on 125th Street. There he got the idea to teach public speaking, and he persuaded the YMCA manager to allow him to instruct a class in return for 80% of the net proceeds. In his first session, he had run out of material. Improvising, he suggested that students speak about "something that made them angry", and discovered that the technique made speakers unafraid to address a public audience. From this 1912 debut, the Dale Carnegie Course evolved. Carnegie had tapped into the average American's desire to have more self-confidence, and by 1914, he was earning $500 (about $ today) every week. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he served in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

spending the time at

Camp Upton Camp Upton was a port of embarkation of the United States Army during World War I. During World War II it was used to intern enemy aliens. It was located in Yaphank, New York in Suffolk County on Long Island, on the present-day location of Bro ...

.Dale Carnegie, Author, Is Dead
''NY times''. November 2, 1955. Retrieved on 2011-09-10. His draft card noted he had filed for conscientious objector status and had a loss of a

forefinger The index finger (also referred to as forefinger, first finger, second finger, pointer finger, trigger finger, digitus secundus, digitus II, and many other terms) is the second digit of a human hand. It is located between the thumb and the mid ...

. By 1916, Dale conducted a sold out lecture at Carnegie Hall, which influenced his decision in 1919 to change the spelling of his last name in honor of the steel magnate,

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

, and easier for others to remember. Carnegie's first collection of his writings was ''Public Speaking: a Practical Course for Business Men'' (1926), later entitled ''Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business'' (1932). In 1936,

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

published ''How to Win Friends and Influence People''. The book was a bestseller from its debut. By the time of Carnegie's death, the book had sold five million copies in 31 languages, and there had been 450,000 graduates of his Dale Carnegie Institute. It has been stated in the book that he had critiqued over 150,000 speeches in his participation in the adult education movement of the time.

Personal life

His first marriage ended in divorce in August 1931. On November 5, 1944, he married his former secretary, Dorothy Price Vanderpool (1913–1998), who also had been divorced. Vanderpool had a daughter Rosemary, from her first marriage. She and Carnegie had a daughter Donna Dale. Dorothy ran the Carnegie company following Dale's death. Carnegie died of Hodgkin's disease on November 1, 1955, at his home in Forest Hills, New York. He was buried in the Belton, Cass County, Missouri, cemetery.

Books

* 1915: ''Art of Public Speaking'', with Joseph Berg Esenwein. * 1920: ''Public Speaking: the Standard Course of the United Y. M. C. A. Schools''. * 1926: ''Public Speaking: a Practical Course for Business Men''. Later editions and updates changed the name of the book several times: '' Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business'' (1937 revised), ''How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking'' (1956) and ''Public Speaking for Success'' (2005). * 1932: '' Lincoln the Unknown''. * 1934: ''Little Known Facts About Well Known People''. * 1936: ''

''. * 1937: ''Five Minute Biographies''. * 1944: ''Dale Carnegie's Biographical round-up''. * 1948: ''

''. * 1959: ''Dale Carnegie's Scrapbook: a Treasury of the Wisdom of the Ages''. A selection of Dale Carnegie's writings edited by Dorothy Carnegie. * 1962: ''The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking''. (by Dorothy Carnegie, based upon Dale Carnegie's own notes and ideas)

Booklets

(most given out in Dale Carnegie Courses) * 1938: ''How to Get Ahead in the World Today'' * 1936: ''The Little Golden Book'' (later renamed ''The Golden Book'', lists basics from ''HTWFIP'' and ''HTSWSL'') * 1946: ''How to Put Magic in the Magic Formula'' * 1947: ''A Quick and Easy Way to Learn to Speak in Public''. (later combined as ''Speak More Effectively'', 1979) * 1952: ''How to Make Our Listeners Like Us''. (later combined as ''Speak More Effectively'', 1979) * 1959: ''How to Save Time and Get Better Results in Conferences'' (later renamed ''Meetings: Quicker & Better Results'') * 1960: ''How to Remember Names'' (later renamed as ''Remember Names'') * 1965: ''The Little Recognized Secret of Success'' (later renamed ''Live Enthusiastically'') * 1979: ''Apply Your Problem Solving Know How''

References

External links