Word: algerisms
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STRUGGLING UPWARD AND OTHER WORKS -Horatio Alger Jr.-Crown Publishers...
Nothing recedes like success. In the field of juvenile literature, Horatio Alger Jr., four of whose novels have just been reissued in this volume, was once regarded as the most successful writer who ever lived. Directly or indirectly he influenced the life of every U.S. town boy born between 1870 and 1900. Farm boys had less time and money for fiction, but if they did read stories, they read Alger; thousands of them imitated his heroes by going to Manhattan to seek their fortunes. But Alger's books lost most of their public during World...
Until Struggling Upward and Other Works reappeared this week, the Alger books had completely vanished from the bookstores. They had also vanished from the circulation departments of public libraries, from Sunday schools where they were formerly given as prizes, from newsboys' homes of which Alger used to be a patron saint, and from the bookshelves of forward-looking children. Of the man and author, little was remembered except his name, around which had gathered a series of misconceptions. Some of them...
...Alger wrote about poor boys who became millionaires. (His heroes rose from poverty to riches but by contemporary standards they did not rise to the top-their fortunes usually averaged...
...Alger heroes acquired their wealth by honesty, enterprise and patience. (They acquired it chiefly by meeting kind old merchants who became their guardians or adoptive fathers...