Carnegie, Dale (kär`nəgē, kärnā`gē), 1888–1955, American lecturer and writer on self-improvement, b. Maryville, Mo., as Dale Carnagey; grad. State Normal School Number Two, Warrensburg, Mo. (1908). After stints as a salesman and actor, he began teaching (1912) public speaking in New York City at a YMCA. His popular classes eventually became the Dale Carnegie Course, a pioneering training program in communication and interpersonal relations for people in sales, business management, and other fields. Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), a runaway bestseller; How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948); and other books. He also penned newspaper columns and had a radio program.

Carnegie, Dale

orig. Dale Carnegey

(born Nov. 24, 1888, Maryville, Mo., U.S.—died Nov. 1, 1955, Forest Hills, N.Y.) U.S. lecturer and author. Born into poverty, he worked as a traveling salesman and an actor before he began teaching public speaking at a YMCA in New York City in 1912. His classes were extremely successful, and he was soon lecturing to packed houses. To standardize his teaching methods he began publishing pamphlets, which he collected into book form as Public Speaking: A Practical Course for Business Men (1926). His hugely popular How To Win Friends and Influence People (1936) won him a national following; like most of his books, it reveals little that was unknown about human psychology but stresses that an individual's attitude is crucial. The Dale Carnegie Institute subsequently established hundreds of chapters throughout the country.

Carnegie, Dale (b. Carnagey) (1888–1955) author, public speaker; born in Maryville, Mo. Devoted to public speaking from his teen years, he was unsuccessful as a salesman. Moving to New York City, he gave classes in public speaking at the Young Men's Christian Association (1912). Soon he was developing courses on his own, and writing pamphlets he would eventually publish as books. After serving in the army in World War I he managed Lowell Thomas's lecture tour, then turned to his own tour to promote his ideas about success through public speaking. In the early 1930s he was known for his books and a radio program, when he published How to Win Friends and Influence People (1930), which enjoyed immediate success and would remain one of the best-sellers of all time. This led to demand for him as a lecturer and writer: he began a syndicated newspaper column and he organized the Dale Carnegie Institute for Effective Speaking and Human Relations, with branches all over the world; he lived to see the day when his name became virtually synonymous with the very kind of self-help-to-success that he promoted.