Biography
Andrew Carnegie arrived in America from Scotland as an impoverished immigrant child and became the richest person in the world. Starting as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory at 13 for $1.20 a week, Carnegie climbed through telegraphy and railroad management before founding Carnegie Steel in the 1870s. By the time he sold it to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million — forming U.S. Steel — it was producing more steel than all of Great Britain combined.
Carnegie educated himself through a Pittsburgh library that opened its shelves to working boys and later gave away his fortune to build 2,509 public libraries around the world. He wrote 'The Gospel of Wealth,' arguing that the rich have a moral obligation to give their money away during their lifetimes, not hoard it for heirs.
He funded Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Hall, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, giving away $350 million — effectively his entire fortune — before dying in 1919. His statement that 'the man who dies rich dies disgraced' remains one of the most radical and enduring things a billionaire has ever said.
Did You Know?
Carnegie's childhood home in Dunfermline had a single room; he slept in the same bed as his parents. His eventual Skibo Castle estate in Scotland had 7,000 acres, a golf course, and was one of the grandest private estates in Europe.