How the autobiography came to be written
In the life of Samuel Smiles, writing had now taken the place of
doctoring, editing, railway, or assurance business. It was books that
now kept the pot boiling.
After Duty, came the life of James Nasmyth, which, cast in the form of
an autobiography, was published in 1883. Nasmyth was not one of the
usual Smiles heroes, but a man of education and background, the
inventor of the steam hammer. We can understand best how the life came
to be undertaken from what George Reid, the painter, another romantic
Scotsman, said about the Nasmyths as he introduced them by letter:
Nasmyth has a splendid head and a beautiful wife. She is the most
comely, sweetest type of English matron. She is simply superb. I should
like to paint her with her pillow and lace, against a background of her
own Gloire de Dijon roses."
Like George Reid, Samuel Smiles loved good looks, and when Mr. and Mrs.
Nasmyth called upon him one afternoon on the biography quest, he
succumbed, later explaining his consent by saying that Nasmyth was full
of originality, and had had a most interesting life. The "comely
English matron" may have put her husband's case well. There were many
delays before the publication of this book. Nasmyth constantly changed
his mind. When the book was finished, he became diffident, and did not
think it should be published until after his death, so the MS. was put
away in a box until that time. But in a few a days he was back again
with more suggestions, more notes, thinking it might be better to
publish now after all.
extract from Samuel Smiles and his Suroundings by Aileen Smiles,
published by Robert Hale Limited, London. 1956.