Dale Carnegie, a struggling actor turned salesman, began teaching a night class in public speaking at a New York YMCA in 1912 to exhausted accountants, mechanics and salesmen. Over two decades he took the course to Philadelphia, Baltimore, London and Paris, handing students small booklets to go with his 14-week program. In 1934 Simon & Schuster executive Leon Shimkin took the course, saw its commercial potential, and got around Carnegie’s reluctance to write by having a stenographer transcribe his lectures for him to edit. How to Win Friends and Influence People appeared in October 1936 with the conversational rhythm of a live talk.
The publisher ordered only 1,200 copies, but Shimkin mailed 500 to course alumni, which generated more than 5,000 orders, then ran a full-page New York Times ad quoting John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. The book went through 17 printings in its first year, sold a quarter of a million copies in 90 days and stayed on the bestseller list for two years. By 1940 it was a hit in Nazi Germany. A 1937 New York Times review warned that charm might replace competence, and Sinclair Lewis called it a method for extracting what you want from people. The episode sets Warren Buffett, who took the course at 20, against Charles Manson, who studied it in prison.
- Its core rules: avoid direct criticism, show sincere appreciation, use a person’s name and let the other person do the talking.
- A 1981 edition cut the original six sections to four, removing advice on business letters and a chapter on marriage.
- In 2022 an edition supervised by his daughter Donna Dale Carnegie restored some of the 1936 material.
- Buffett displays only his Carnegie course diploma in his office, and Donna Reed got the book as an Iowa high school sophomore before becoming an Academy Award winner.
- In 1998 two LDS missionaries held hostage in Saratov, Russia, used Carnegie’s methods on their captors.
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