1
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, 3
Preface to Revised Edition
How to Win Friends and Influence People was first published in 1937
in an edition of only five thousand copies. Neither Dale Carnegie nor
the publishers, Simon and Schuster, anticipated more than this
modest sale. To their amazement, the book became an overnight
sensation, and edition after edition rolled off the presses to keep up
with the increasing public demand. Now to Win Friends
andInfEuence People took its place in publishing history as one of
the all-time international best-sellers. It touched a nerve and filled a
human need that was more than a faddish phenomenon of post-
Depression days, as evidenced by its continued and uninterrupted
sales into the eighties, almost half a century later.
Dale Carnegie used to say that it was easier to make a million
dollars than to put a phrase into the English language. How to Win
Friends and Influence People became such a phrase, quoted,
paraphrased, parodied, used in innumerable contexts from political
cartoon to novels. The book itself was translated into almost every
known written language. Each generation has discovered it anew
and has found it relevant.
Which brings us to the logical question: Why revise a book that has
proven and continues to prove its vigorous and universal appeal?
Why tamper with success?
To answer that, we must realize that Dale Carnegie himself was a
tireless reviser of his own work during his lifetime. How to Win Friends
and Influence People was written to be used as a textbook for his
courses in Effective Speaking and Human Relations and is still used in
those courses today. Until his death in 1955 he constantly improved
and revised the course itself to make it applicable to the evolving
, 4
needs of an every-growing public. No one was more sensitive to the
changing currents of present-day life than Dale Carnegie. He
constantly improved and refined his methods of teaching; he
updated his book on Effective Speaking several times. Had he lived
longer, he himself would have revised How to Win Friends and
Influence People to better refiect the changes that have taken
place in the world since the thirties.
Many of the names of prominent people in the book, well known at
the time of first publication, are no longer recognized by many of
today's readers. Certain examples and phrases seem as quaint and
dated in our social climate as those in a Victorian novel. The
important message and overall impact of the book is weakened to
that extent.
Our purpose, therefore, in this revision is to clarify and strengthen the
book for a modern reader without tampering with the content. We
have not "changed" How to Win Friends and Influence People
except to make a few excisions and add a few more contemporary
examples. The brash, breezy Carnegie style is intact-even the thirties
slang is still there. Dale Carnegie wrote as he spoke, in an intensively
exuberant, colloquial, conversational manner.
So his voice still speaks as forcefully as ever, in the book and in his
work. Thousands of people all over the world are being trained in
Carnegie courses in increasing numbers each year. And other
thousands are reading and studying How to Win Friends and
Influence People and being inspired to use its principles to better
their lives. To all of them, we offer this revision in the spirit of the
honing and polishing of a finely made tool.
Dorothy Carnegie (Mrs. Dale Carnegie)
,2
, 3
Preface to Revised Edition
How to Win Friends and Influence People was first published in 1937
in an edition of only five thousand copies. Neither Dale Carnegie nor
the publishers, Simon and Schuster, anticipated more than this
modest sale. To their amazement, the book became an overnight
sensation, and edition after edition rolled off the presses to keep up
with the increasing public demand. Now to Win Friends
andInfEuence People took its place in publishing history as one of
the all-time international best-sellers. It touched a nerve and filled a
human need that was more than a faddish phenomenon of post-
Depression days, as evidenced by its continued and uninterrupted
sales into the eighties, almost half a century later.
Dale Carnegie used to say that it was easier to make a million
dollars than to put a phrase into the English language. How to Win
Friends and Influence People became such a phrase, quoted,
paraphrased, parodied, used in innumerable contexts from political
cartoon to novels. The book itself was translated into almost every
known written language. Each generation has discovered it anew
and has found it relevant.
Which brings us to the logical question: Why revise a book that has
proven and continues to prove its vigorous and universal appeal?
Why tamper with success?
To answer that, we must realize that Dale Carnegie himself was a
tireless reviser of his own work during his lifetime. How to Win Friends
and Influence People was written to be used as a textbook for his
courses in Effective Speaking and Human Relations and is still used in
those courses today. Until his death in 1955 he constantly improved
and revised the course itself to make it applicable to the evolving
, 4
needs of an every-growing public. No one was more sensitive to the
changing currents of present-day life than Dale Carnegie. He
constantly improved and refined his methods of teaching; he
updated his book on Effective Speaking several times. Had he lived
longer, he himself would have revised How to Win Friends and
Influence People to better refiect the changes that have taken
place in the world since the thirties.
Many of the names of prominent people in the book, well known at
the time of first publication, are no longer recognized by many of
today's readers. Certain examples and phrases seem as quaint and
dated in our social climate as those in a Victorian novel. The
important message and overall impact of the book is weakened to
that extent.
Our purpose, therefore, in this revision is to clarify and strengthen the
book for a modern reader without tampering with the content. We
have not "changed" How to Win Friends and Influence People
except to make a few excisions and add a few more contemporary
examples. The brash, breezy Carnegie style is intact-even the thirties
slang is still there. Dale Carnegie wrote as he spoke, in an intensively
exuberant, colloquial, conversational manner.
So his voice still speaks as forcefully as ever, in the book and in his
work. Thousands of people all over the world are being trained in
Carnegie courses in increasing numbers each year. And other
thousands are reading and studying How to Win Friends and
Influence People and being inspired to use its principles to better
their lives. To all of them, we offer this revision in the spirit of the
honing and polishing of a finely made tool.
Dorothy Carnegie (Mrs. Dale Carnegie)
