“BUSINESSMEN WHO DO NOT KNOW HOW TO FIGHT WORRY DIE YOUNG”: HOW TO STOP WORRYING AND START LIVING, PRESENTATION COPY WARMLY INSCRIBED IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION AND TWICE SIGNED BY DALE CARNEGIE
CARNEGIE, Dale. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1948. Octavo, original red paper boards, original dust jacket.
First edition, first printing, presentation copy, of the self-help and business guru’s final book, signed on the verso of the front free endpaper by Carnegie and inscribed in the year of publication, "My dear Hugh Bigelow, This book is presented with deep appreciation for the unselfish spirit and inspiring service you gave to acting as director for class # Advanced 7. Dale Carnegie, May 19 1948." With an unsigned, printed Christmas card from Carnegie and his family laid in.
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living was the follow-up to Carnegie's wildly successful 1936 bestseller, How to Win Friends and Influence People. "The author noted that he had decided to write this volume when, after listening to thousands of students in his public-speaking classes, 'I realized that one of the biggest problems of these adults was worry.' It was vintage Carnegie. Filled with snappy prose and abundant anecdotes, it drew lessons from real individuals who had succeeded at overcoming stressful problems that threatened their lives. Above all, it was down-to-earth and useful. What was Carnegie's remedy for curing the debilitating emotional anxiety and worry sweeping through modern America? Boldly, once again, he proposed a new cultural ethic: live for today and seek emotional self-fulfillment" (Watts, Self-Help Messiah, 438, 442). First printing, as noted on the copyright page.
Interior fine; light rubbing to extremities. Wear and chipping to extremities of original dust jacket with a four-inch closed tear at rear flap fold and a one- and a half-inch closed tear to spine, not affecting lettering. An extremely good copy with a wonderful inscription, most scarce inscribed.