Word: horatios
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Since 1928, Herbert R. Mayes' Alger; A Biography Without a Hero has served as the standard reference work on Horatio Alger Jr., the 19th century author of 109 novels about poor but honest boys who rise to success. Mayes, then a young journalist, went on to become a successful magazine editor (Good Housekeeping, McCall's). But he did not quite live up to the example of Alger heroes. The book that has been consulted by scholars for decades, Mayes has quietly revealed, is - gads! - a hoax...
...book's original reviewers, Harry Hansen, who urged his readers not to miss the biography and eventually became a close friend. Mayes finally decided to confess when he was asked to comment on criticisms of his book made in the more recent Alger biography by Ralph Gardner. The Horatio Alger Society, based in Lansing, Mich., and made up of 250 book buffs, provided a happy ending...
...Horatio Alger's novels were designed to illustrate the possibility not of rags-to-riches but of rags-to-respectability, as I take them to have been, they do not offer wildly misleading estimates of the prospects for mobility open to Americans...
...Reston was one of 11 recipients of the Horatio Alger award, given to men who rose from "humble origins" to a position of power. There is no doubt that Reston has reached the level of the powerful. Reston writes for the men in power. His columns seem to say, "Read me to find out what America is thinking...
...regular Horatio Alger story...