How to Develop Self-Confidence & Influence People By Public Speaking About the Author An American writer, lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills, Dale Carnegie was born in 1888 in Maryville, Missouri.Public Speaking: a Practical Course for Business Men (1926) was the first collection of Carnegie’s writings. It was later entitled Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business (1932). It was published in 1956 with the title How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking. How to Win Friends and Influence People, when published by Simon and Schuster in 1936, became an instant bestseller. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948) introduces the fundamental facts that one must know about worry and provides the perfect way to conquer it. Carnegie served in the U.S. Army during the First World War. He died in 1955 aged sixty-six at his home in Forest Hills, New York and was buried in the Belton, Cass County, Missouri, cemetery.