How to Win Friends and Influence People in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dale Carnegie began his career not as a writer, but as a teacher of public speaking. He started out teaching night classes at a YMCA in New York and his classes became wildly popular and highly attended. The success of the classes in New York prompted YMCAs in Philadelphia and Baltimore to begin hosting the course as well. After even greater success, Carnegie decided to begin teaching the courses on his own at hotels in London, Paris, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Because he could not find any satisfactory handbook already
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (memoir) published that same year. Young's book does not reference either Carnegie's or Tressler's works. The aggregate site iDreamBooks lists 12 mixed reviews. The book was adapted into a one-man play that played on London's West End for several months each in 2003 and 2004. Young was initially played by Jack Davenport, then by Young himself. A feature-length film adaptation, also titled "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People", was released in October 2008. It is directed by Robert B. Weide and stars Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, and Megan Fox. The film is loosely based on the book, turning the plot