The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1920. 8vo, xiv+385 pp. Illustrated. $6.00.

DR. HOLMES’S familiar parable of the Three Johns may be applied with great aptness to the whole art of biography. ‘Thomas’s ideal John’ appears in the usual product of the biographer; ‘John’s ideal John’ in the autobiography; ‘the real John,’ as truly in letters as in life, is ‘known only to his Maker.’

Both in biography and in autobiography there are varying degrees of accurate approach to ‘the real John.’ A shrewd reading between the lines contributes largely to such an approach. In this Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie there is that ample measure of frank self-revelation which enables the reader to supplement the narrative with his own interpretations and thus to feel that he has made a fairly intimate acquaintance with the narrator.

And what an extraordinary story the autobiographer has to tell! It is indeed a unique record of personal achievement. Other immigrant boys, without any resources beyond those best gifts of ability and character, have begun as humbly as Carnegie, the messenger-boy in a Pittsburgh telegraph office, and have risen to affluence and power. But Carnegie did much more than that, for he used the power his affluence gave him as a pioneer in vast beneficences, and, it may almost be said, as the founder of a new religion of wealth, the gospel of which he preached by word and deed, most effectually of all by practising it on a scale and scope previously quite unknown.

Strangely enough, one of the most significant bits in the entire book is found, not in the body of the text, but in a footnote, provided by the sympathetic editor, Professor John C. Van Dyke. It consists of a memorandum made by Mr. Carnegie in 1868, which has but recently come to light and was not used in the Autobiography. ‘Thirty-three,’ it begins, ‘and an income of $50,000 per annum! By this time two years I can so arrange all my business as to secure at least $50,000 per annum. Beyond this never earn — make no effort to increase fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes. Cast aside business forever, except for others.’ It proceeds with proposals to settle in Oxford, get a thorough education, make the acquaintance of literary men, take part in public affairs, through the press and public speaking, and especially not to let the amassing of wealth become a debasing idolatry.

The letter of all this plan was not fulfilled, but the spirit certainly was. In the matter of making the acquaintance of literary men, as of ‘ superior persons’ in general, there was no failure on Carnegie’s part; and the fruit of this interest in his life appears in many pages of illuminating reminiscence and anecdote. It is noteworthy that what would have taken the form of snobbery in small natures does not convey any such impression here. The appreciation of the best human qualities in others, whether of humble or lofty estate, is quite as striking a characteristic of the book as the straightforward record of the author’s own achievement of great ends.

The Autobiography, relating the fulfillment of the spirit of this plan, abounds in passages tempting to quote and illustrating many of the best phases of American life. There is space here to cite but a single bit: the dramatic conclusion of the book, following immediately upon a record of conversations with the Kaiser in 1907 and 1912, when he impressed Carnegie with his genuine desire for World-Peace. Thus the Autobiography ends:—

‘As I read this to-day [1914], what a change! The world convulsed by war as never before! Men slaying each other like wild beasts! I dare not relinquish all hope. In recent days I see another ruler coming forward upon the world stage, who may prove himself the immortal one. The man who vindicated his country’s honor in the Panama Canal toll dispute is now President. He has the indomitable will of genius, and true hope of which we are told

‘Nothing is impossible to genius. Watch President Wilson! He has Scotch blood in his veins.

‘[Here the manuscript ends abruptly.]’

M. H.