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This is a lively two-volume biography, first published in 1893, of the influential Victorian businessman and politician W. H. Smith (1825–1891), whose father and uncle established the well-known stationery and bookselling business. The author, Herbert Maxwell (1845-1932), was a Scottish essayist and Conservative Member of Parliament who greatly admired Smith's human qualities and had access to his personal papers. Volume 1 documents the foundation of the newspaper wholesaling business, Smith's education and his thwarted desire to become a priest. It describes how Smith helped his father expand their efficient and successful business to include a chain of railway station news- and bookstalls and a lending library, as well as becoming sole agents for The Times in 1854. Smith went into Parliament in 1868, and worked for several years at the Treasury. Volume 1 ends with his tour to Cyprus in 1878 as First Lord of the Admiralty.
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