Word: algerism
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Eighty-six years after his death, the name of Horatio Alger Jr. still conjures up unlikely memories of improbable dreams. In more than 100 of Alger's books for young readers, upstanding, hardwork- ing poor boys reached sudden and unexpected success by saving rich benefactors from terrible fates. But it turns out that Alger had a dream of his own -- to appeal to grownups. This July the Shoe String Press will publish for the first time Alger's Mabel Parker; or, The Hidden Treasure, a story of true love triumphing over mere monetary pursuits. Now in the archives at Syracuse...
...plot is basically faithful to a the Bible story (see the last bit of Genesis for the paperback version). Joseph is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, and is taken to Egypt, where, in the the first known Horatio Alger story, he rises to the top and ends up saving his now repentant brothers. Mark Meredith as Joseph has a superb voice and just enough of the pretty boy look about him to make his putting on sunglasses look like a scene from Risky Business. The one petty fault with his performance is that he looks too much...
...Jackson and Picture Editor Arnold Drapkin. If their years of service are added together, Jackson and Drapkin have been around 19 years longer than the magazine itself, which turned 62 last March. Their rise from office boys to positions of honor and responsibility adds a gratifying chapter to Horatio Alger lore...
Another likely leader for the '90s is Wang Zhaoguo, 44, director of the Communist Party's general office. His story is almost a Chinese version of a Horatio Alger tale. In 1980 Wang, who was then a deputy factory director, was assigned to take Deng on an inspection tour of Hubei province's No. 2 automobile plant. The bespectacled technician made such a good impression on Deng that he was promptly transferred to Peking. Two years later, Wang was elevated to the Central Committee...
...Gardner's first novel, The Flight of Peter Fromm, written when the author was 59, was rejected by several major houses; Kaufmann found it "hilarious" and published it. The low-selling Almanac of American Letters was issued because the publisher found its collage of literary trivia irresistible. (Items: Horatio Alger was unfit for service in the Union Army. The original title of Death of a Salesman was The Inside of His Head. Tarzan does not live in sin, he was married to Jane by her father, a minister. Poet Robert Lowell twice tried to enlist in the armed forces; both...