The Life of George Stephenson, Railway Engineer

Published in 1857, this first biography of the great railway engineer describes in fascinating detail his life, labours and loves.

When George Stephenson (1781–1848) died, Samuel Smiles persuaded his son, Robert, to allow him to write the life of his father. Published in 1857, this first biography describes the great engineer's youth, his crucial contribution to developing Britain's railways, and even when he fell in love.A political and social reformer, Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) was also a noted biographer in the Victorian period, paying particular attention to engineers. His first biography was of George Stephenson (1781–1848), whom he met at the opening of the North Midland Railway in 1840. After Stephenson died, Smiles wrote a memoir of him for Eliza Cook's Journal. With the permission of Stephenson's son, Robert, this evolved into the first full biography of the great engineer, published in 1857 and reissued here in its revised third edition. This detailed and lively account of Stephenson's life, which proved very popular, charts his education and youth, his crucial contribution to the development of Britain's railways, and his relationships with many notables of the Victorian world. It remains of interest to the general reader as well as historians of engineering, transport and business.