Adam Smith (June 16, 1723 – July 17, 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher who was a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment and a pioneer of the discipline of political economy. He is best known for two classics: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). He was born in Kirkcaldy in the county of Fife on the east coast of Scotland, about 11 miles from Edinburgh. His father died just after his birth and he inherited his father’s estate at age 2. He studied moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow and did postgraduate work at Oxford on scholarship, immersing himself in the Bodleian Library. Returning to Scotland, he gave lectures in Edinburgh and met David Hume, who became a colleague and close friend. He gained a professorship at the University of Glasgow in 1751 and was elected to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh in 1752, heading that group a year leader.  Publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments brought him international recognition and attracted many well-to-do students to study with him.  His interests, however, turned increasingly towards economics and jurisprudence; he was made a Doctor of Laws in 1762. He left academia in 1763 to tutor the young Duke of Buccleuch, which increased his income and enabled him to tour Europe and meet other intellectual notables, including Benjamin Franklin.  He returned to Kilcady on 1766 and spent the better part of the next ten years working on The Wealth of Nations, which was an instant success upon publication in 1776. In 1778 was appointed commissioner of customs in Scotland and moved to Panmure House in Edinburgh with his mother, where he lived until his death in 1790.