Author Bios
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Arnold Bennett 'was indubitably great', wrote Rebecca West. Somerset Maugham agreed and explained why:
'All his books bear proof of an extremely penetrating vision regarding his fellow creatures.' Bennett's Old Wife's Tale is on every shortlist of the Western world's greatest novels, but what many of today's readers don't know is that Bennett was also enormously successful with his Philosophy for Living series - what he called his 'Pocket Philosophies' - where he employed that penetrating vision every bit as well as he did in his fiction. Margaret Drabble, one of Bennett's biographers, wrote about 'the role Bennett was to play in educating the taste of the English public, in castigating it, in the most amiable and persuasive fashion, for its philistinism'. One of the ways he did that was with these enormously popular little books, seven in all, that expanded his reputation far beyond readers of fiction.
These volumes comprise what many consider to be the first series of self-help books ever published. In them Bennett gave thoughtful, direct, clearly written advice about living - advice that is as relevant today as ever. How to Live on 24 hours a Day was a major
bestseller for Bennett in England and the United States.
He reported that the book 'brought me more letters of appreciation than all of my other books put together'. During a tour of the United States in 1911, he met admiring readers of this first time-management book wherever he went, and was even told that medical doctors were prescribing the book for their patients. American business leaders were especially taken with the Philosophy for Living series. Henry Ford told Bennett in 1930 that he had once bought 500 copies of How to Live on 24 Hours a Day to give to his employees, and Ralston Purina founder William Danforth enthusiastically recommends the book in his inspirational classic, I Dare You!
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