horatio alger jr. was a 19th century writer and novelist. he's best known for his rags to riches stories centered around young boys working their way out of poverty up next historian. jack bales tells his life story and explains how he's been misrepresented in history mr. bales is the co-author of the lost life of horatio alger jr. this is part of the great lives lecture series at the university of mary washington, which provided the video. jack bales receives his ba in english from illinois college and his msn library science from the university of illinois. jack retired last year as reference and humanities librarian emeritus after more than 40 years at the university of mary, washington. during that time. he acquired a richly deserved reputation as an indispensable resource to students and faculty as well on their research projects.

in fact a frequent comment to how far from students over the years is that they would never have graduated if it had not been with itself selfless and generous help. or worse to that effect rented by jack bales. i watched her it said by a prominent author who was visiting matter of fact part of the great live series. was best in campus. he said that he believed jack to be the finest research librarian in the country. and assessment with which i would not disagree. jack's own research has focused primarily on two subject horatio alger and his beloved chicago cubs. here's a long time member of the horatio alger society. and is the past editor of his bi-monthly publication newsboy. he co-authored two works on alger; horatio algeria junior and annotated bibliography of comet and criticism and the lost

life of horatio alger junior. they also has published many works on the chicago cubs including before they were the cops. early years of chicago's first professional baseball team, which was published in 2019. jack lives in fredericksburg as the father of two children, patrick and laura but not researching and writing he enjoys hiking with them particularly in the shenandoah mountains. it's a very great pleasure to introduce my good friend jack bales. thank you for your more than kind introduction bill. i remember clearly when you first started the great lies program so many years ago. the great lives web page points out that the purpose of the series is to explore the diverse lives and achievements of remarkable people. while the program has certainly done that but of course that is

largely due to your hard work which is but me and so many other speakers here to this podium. and i'm also grateful to the sponsors of my presentation john and linda coker whom i've known for so many years. so thanks so much john and linda for your fine support of great lives. are probably no other author of children's books during the last 30 years of the 19th century was more than horatio alger junior. a writer of so-called rags to riches stories. his name is fairly recognizable today as a synonym for success. many magazine and newspaper writers for example when invited about persons who were poor early on in life, but who worked hard and achieved prosperity often observed that the individual's careers read like those of horatio alger's heroes. for another illustration on a completely different level. i remember years ago seeing an advertisement for a mail order

clothing company. instead the two options men socks have a tendency to droop. so it featured horatio alger socks proclaiming that they work their way up. but these four illustrations here from an algebra book show the path of a typical boy hero starting with the upper left. there's a young lad on his way to fame and fortune saying goodbye to his parents for this belongings over his shoulder. he's meeting up with a perspective employer there on the right. down below he is working hard at his desk working hard and saving his money and on the lower, right? it shows him as a prosperous member of his society. but who was horatio alger? horatiology was born horatio alger jr. was born in vivira, massachusetts in 1832 the son of a harvard educated of a harvard

educated minister and farmer. he intended to follow in his father's footsteps and he entered harvard university in 1848 graduated in 1852 eighth and a class of 88 and a member of phi beta kappa. he was also the smallest member of the class standing five feet two inches tall. now the several years after graduation were marked by alger's indecisive search for a career. he lived with his parents in the small town of marlboro, massachusetts and though he was preparing for the ministry. he had a longing to write. he contributed poetry and short stories to magazines and algae was not a particularly good poet as carbine the name here illustrates. this was however, probably his best known poem and was reprinted in many many anthologies. and all the while he continued to write. although many critics think he always vote for young people.

this is just not the case as his first works. mainly short stories and poems were aimed at adults and as and as he wrote to in 1892. when i began to write for publication, it was far from my expectation that i should devote my life to writing stories for boys. i was ambitious rather to write for adults. and he did though to get by you had to support himself by teaching. in 1856. he published a collection of short stories and poems titled bertha's christmas vision named after the principal story and a year later. he published a book of poetry entitled. nothing to do a tilt at our best society. he decided to give divinity school another try from which he graduated in 1860, but he kept on contributing stores and poems to local newspapers and magazines.

after graduation, in fact he sent out on a nine-month tour of europe contributing travel articles to the the new york sun newspaper. back in the united states. he continued to write stories and poems for magazines and newspapers. he was drafted in 1863, but he was exempted because he was short he was asthmatic. he was nearsighted no matter he he supported the union cause by writing patriotic fiction and poems that he wrote for harper's weekly and other publications. and in 1864 he published his first novel for young people called frank's campaign or the farm in the camp, which was designed as he put it to show how boys can be of the most effectual service. in assisting to put down the rebellion. but this small amount of writing naturally produce small monetary

rewards in 1864. he accepted a minister's position at the first unitarian church in brewster, massachusetts at a salary of $800 per year. at algae's invitation edward everett hale who had become nationally known by this time as the author of a man without a country presided at the ordination. unfortunately algiers tenure at brewster was brief. any departed in 1866 at the age of 35, he left under a cloud too where he was accused of quote unnatural familiarity with boys and he resigned from the church. to the best of my and other researchers knowledge and we spend a lot of time looking into this there were absolutely no other accusations of this sort made throughout alger's life. he left the church and he also left the area. he moved to new york city where he now began to write solely for young people abandoning the

adult market for the more lucrative juvenile field as alger said in a letter years later. the decision was made when for an article for the north american review on which i had expended considerable labor. i was paid at the rate of a dollar per printed page. from that time on i leased my pen to the boys and the world has been spared much poor poetry and ambitious prose. as soon after this leasing of his pen in early 1867 he scored his first success his first juvenile story about the young street boys of new york entitled ragged deck or street life in new york began serialization in a magazine called student and schoolmate the january 67 issue, which was a monthly publication for boys and girls very popular at the time. the cereal was so favorably we see that alger rewrote it in book form. he enlarge it in book form two publishing it according to his

preface as the first volume of a series intended to illustrate the life and experiences of the friendless and vagrant children who are now numbered by thousands in new york and other cities. alger noted he went on that the quote necessary information has been gathered mainly from personal observation and conversations with the boys themselves -- as you can see here earns his living as a boot block on the streets of new york polishing people's shoes. now what exactly were these personal observations and conversations and in 1890 algevote an article for ladies home journal called are my boys real? and he wrote that. the first street boy with whom i became acquainted in new york was johnny nolan a young boot block who made daily calls at the office of one of my friends. by conversations with them gave me my first knowledge of new york street boys and their mode of life.

my interest was excited and led me a few months later to undertake the story of ragged -- in which johnny figures. alger also began paying business to charitable institutions in new york city. american philanthropist charles lauren brace something of a pioneer and social reform founded the children's aids society in 1853 in order to help the homeless children of the city. the society at first sponsored trade schools and they placed orphan children with families out west. they would put them on board trains take them out westward and stop in places along the way where families would adopt them. british notice a great many boys sleeping outside and he decided to establish a lodging house for newsboys and other homeless boys of the city and by the way, they were all so institutions and lodging houses for girls as well. he found a grimy lot at the top of the new york sun newspaper building that the owner said he

could use which was divided into a school room a large bedroom with bunk beds and office and a bathroom. he also found a man to run the home and on march 18th 1854 the lodge opened. the superintendent of the lodge gave alger a tour and he was certainly inspired by what he saw. and the book a young friend of raggedek asked him about a place that -- mentioned where he could get supper and the bed for just a few cents -- replies. it's the newsboys lodging house on fulton street up over the sun office. it's a good place. i don't know what us boys would do without it. here illustrations from the first edition of braggedik and later editions showing the all the all the characters in the series. so does inspired by going to the newsboys lodging house talking to people there? he wrote the story of ragged --

a young homeless boot black who go poor is honest. now the story goes like this -- is on the streets of new york city applying his trade in the overhears a man named mr. whitney telling his nephew frank who was on his way to boarding school bid is tied up with business and would be unable to give him a tour of the city. -- hears this conversation and offers to help. and offers to be frank's guide and mr. whitney is rather taken with the idea, but young -- is truly ragged and he really is not presentable. and so they take the boy back to his hotel room where frank gives -- one of his suits of clothes and the two boys make their way around the city. they become friends and when they meet up later back in the hotel mr. whitney encourages -- to make something of himself and mr. whitney tells him. i hope my lad you are prosper and rise in the world, you know that in this free country poverty and early life is no bar to a man's advancement.

so -- takes his words to heart. he rents a cheap room and be friends another homeless boy and then henry fosdick. who had been to school he had been to school and -- offers him a place to stay in exchange for school lessons. technology savings account starts to save his money. both of the boys study hard they put their money in the bank and they kind of plan for the future and one day they take a day off and they're on a ferry on the river in the east river outside of new york when a young child falls from the ferry into the foaming water below. the following is from the book. my child the father explained in anguish who will save my child 1,010,000 thousand ten thousand dollars to anyone who will save him. the chance to be but few passengers on board at the time and nearly all these were either in the cabins or standing forward among the few who saw the child fall was you guessed it ragged -- our hero. now -- was an expert swimmer.

it was an accomplishment which he had possessed for years and no sooner had he seen the boy fall then he resolved to rescue him. is determination was formed before he heard the liberal offer made by the boy's father indeed. i must do -- the justice to say that in the excitement of the moment. he did not hear it at all. nor would it have stimulated the alacrity with which he sprang to the rescue of the little boy? the father turns out to be mr. james rockwell a wealthy businessman who first rewards -- with a suit of clothes and then a well-paying job in his office. -- and henry leave their cheap room for a nicer one. -- decides to keep his boot blocking box though. he tells henry that he wants to keep it quote to remind me of the hard times. i've had when i was an ignorant boot black and never expected to be anything better. when in short your ragged -- at bostic? you must drop that name now and think of yourself now as richard

hunter esquire said our hero smiling. a young gentleman on the way to fame and fortune added bostic now as formulaic is drag a -- may have been it is one of the authors better works and it was an instant success as a serial and student and schoolmate and it was also a success as a book as i said, he rewrote and enlarged it in book form, and this was followed by five other titles in the series beginning with as posix said at the end of ragged -- fame and fortune or the progress of richard hunter. and raggedik has what are and most of the algi's books a poor young hero the symbolic rite of passage of a new suit of clothes and a benevolent patron who helps him rise, not from rags to riches but to respectability. the 1868 first edition of several thousand copies sold out

within a few weeks and a second edition appeared a few months later. it was erasiologist's most popular story and in 1947 the grow your club of new york city selected as one of the most 100 influential american books published before 1900. as i said with the successive bragged -- alger quickly serialized and published five more titles in the series. in 1872 algebra estimated that the six books sold had sold 60,000 copies and by 1890 it was three times as many at 180,000 copies. now with the successive ragged -- algae became more prolific and between 1867 and mid-1873 when he decided to take a break and travel out west he wrote 18 books an average of three a year

as what a short story is in poems and besides books in the ragged dix series. you wrote books in the luck and pluck the braven bold and the tattered tom series and the book tattered tom by the way features a young girl as a hero one. and note the illustration here from luck and pluck which captures the essence of many algae books. it shows the boy hero is belongings under his arm bidding farewell to his parents and leaving home to seek his fortune. one of the books was julius or the street boy out west which details the experiences of a new york street boy who goes out west under the orphan train program of the children's aids society and gets adopted by a family. and alger's books were all written in the same vein with the same basic plot as i mentioned the poor the poor boys are in the case of tattered tom a girl who sell newspapers. they they black boots they work

in stores or in counting rooms their brother businesses to support themselves and their families and after working hard they save their money, they would wind up and respectable positions. well on their way to prosperity and the titles of the books reflected this theme. such as bound to rise. making his way. andy grant's pluck and helping himself alger would sometimes sign his volumes and write an autographed books a poem. he created based on his book titles. the poem was strive and succeed the world's temptations flee. be brave and bold and strong and steady be shifts for yourself and prosper then you must and

when fame and fortune while you try and trust racial audra took a break. in writing in 18673 to travel to europe for four months. he had been frugal and invited his parents his brother his sister and her husband to go along with them at his expense. and by the mid 1870s he realized that he needed to change his books a bit as he viewers pointed out that he had overworked his poor city boy makes good theme. and sales were down too. he decided to focus some of the stories on country boys who went to the city to improve themselves such as luck and pluck, you know, the character there in the illustration, you know left his country home to go to the city. he model two of these country boy books on ben franklin's memoirs bound to rise and risen from the ranks. he also rewrote one of his adult

books timothy comes ward, which is one of the rarest subtitles to find by the way. he wrote it as jack's warren here. jack is taking care of a bully who had been tormenting his ward. in february 18 77 he boarded a train to go to california partly for his health and partly to research what he called a pacific series of books with a western setting. out west he thoroughly enjoyed visiting friends making new acquaintances and and in march, he began inviting a tale of the gold rush called joe's luck. i hope to complete my california story out here. we wrote he went on to say though that i've made a good many acquaintances and i'm only afraid of making so many as to involve being engagements which will interfere with my work. horatio had to cut his tip short so we could go home to

massachusetts as his brother. frank had fallen ill frank died before he could see him though and his mother died later that summer he returned to new york having written little for months and he had to get his career going together. and his career did change course for a bit. one of the most dramatic literary controversies in the late 1870s and 1880s centered on sensationalism and juvenile fiction. in 187 or 1874 the prosecutors and a boston murder had insisted the dime novel westerns had inspired a young boy jesse pomeroy to commit his crime. this is just one incident that set off parents librarians teachers and other ministers and other self-appointed custodians of culture in the 1870s. and and on to protest alger and other authors of books for young people for churning out works

with unrealistic and ridiculous plots. a librarian at the chicago public library for example referred to the books quote. transparent toddriness and is substantiality. it's like a stick of chewing gum. tickling the palate for the moment with their fleeting flavor only to turn into another of sticky nothingness in the end to be cast out and forgotten. not all librarians and educators felt this way of course and many argue. that books were there to be read by all members of a community and besides at least boys and girls were reading something and they should be able to choose what they wanted to read anyway. a few but certainly not all of libraries did withdraw their algebra books and other works of objectionable juvenile fiction from their shelves. and for his part algae believed that the writer. must write from the point of view of the book's main

characters and not write down to them. he added. i've tried to make my heroes manly boys bright cheerful hopeful and plucky. goody. goody boys never win life's prizes. interestingly enough at about this time. alger did try another type of writing. president james garfield was shot on july 2nd 1881 and died on september 19th. a publisher suggested that algebra biography of garfield which he started soon after the president's death. as he later admitted i wrote it against time in 14 days and from canal boy to president was the first biography of garfield written for children and in just a few months 20,000 copies were sold and as alger said i was paid quite handsomely for it. he also seemed to have cleverly outwitted his critics as the

ohio education on monthly wrote in a review. the book is written in a style that what it once attract the attention of boys even of those whom we see with dime novels protruding from their pockets. alger correctly followed these with biography of abraham lincoln and daniel webster titled abraham lincoln the backwoods boy and from farm boy to senator. although they did not sell as well as his garfield book. there were still popular and on the fall of 1884 a publisher invited him to write a juvenile biography of grover cleveland or james blaine depending on who won the presidential election that year algae decline the offer however saying there would be a most delicate matter to write the tale of a living man the light right the life of a living man and i would most likely to incur criticism. i think i will stick to writing stories. and that's what he did continuing to write books and

stay in new york until his retirement in 1896. he particularly enjoyed expending time with boys. he informally adopted or the boys. he had tutored in his earlier days. for several years beginning in 1869. he was the private tutor of the five sons of joseph sulligan the founder of an international banking firm among the sons. both edwin salgeman who became a noted economist at columbia university one of the founders of the american economic association and the guiding force behind the renowned encyclopaedia. now the settlement boys had genuine affection for their tutor, but they can't they occasionally took advantage of his unfailingly good nature and lack of discipline. there was sometimes try to drop hot wax from stairwells onto his bald head. for example. when the boys were adults they would and the algae would visit them every sunday for dinner. they continued to tease him.

as i said allergy was very nearsighted kept them out of the civil war and when they played billiards one of the boys would substitute an apple for a red billiard ball. which they would what you would smash of course every time he hit it. algae was also the tutor to benjamin cardozo. an associate justice of the supreme court from 1932 to 1938 and years later when asked about his college preparation cardozo would acknowledge that indeed algeria was responsible for but he always modestly added he did not do as successful job for me as he did with the careers of his newsboy heroes. in 1879 alger set off for maine and with one of the selling more. he's celebrating boys alfred and they visited can also massachusetts and they visited cambridge boston and also parts of maine as i said now alger offering suffered bouncing bouts of depression and loaning us and he'd like traveling and visiting

with friends. he said i never traveled alone if i can help it. and his father his family by the way was a very little help at this time. his mother was dead as was his sister annie and his brother frank his brother. james was an optician. and he was something of a nair do well. in 1859 james moved to san francisco to like an alger hero seek his fortune unlike the author's boy characters. he never found it. he abandoned his wife and two daughters in san francisco at the age of 34. he married a pregnant 17 year old and he abandoned her after the baby was born. i was just a father was getting up in years himself. he was administer of a church in south natick, massachusetts. he was there a minister 14 years and retired shortly after the family returned from europe and 1874 and he died in natick on

his 75th birthday in 1881. racial junior was not completely alone. however he assumed the expenses for his niece annie the daughter of james's second wife. median formerly adopted two or three, excuse me, new york street boys. one of them charlie davis had run away from home to join a circus in algae based his 1883 book the young circus writer partly on charlie's experiences. alger later set them up in business and bidford maine near old orchard beach where alger sometimes vacations. there was his niece annie later observed charlie quote proved something of a disappointment. alger had better luck with john and edward downing. john downey was a new york newsboy. who was our orphaned at age 12 as alger wrote later. he was left to struggle alone and unaided until at 15. i began to care for him.

john downey made appearances and mark manning's mission published in 1886 and also the story chester rand published in 1892. alger sent john to business school in brooklyn and later apprentice to a photographer. and bedford, maine and his brother edward downey appeared in the odds against him published in 1889 and both of these boys would figure a very principally in alger's when he died. during the decade before algae retired in 1896. he continued to stay the course writing books staying busy. he would write for the story magazines many story magazines, which would serialize the works and then publishers would bring them out in book form. so we got paid twice as in other words. he wrote under a number of pseudonyms as he sometimes had different stories running simultaneously in the same magazine. he wrote rather hurley very quickly simply for the money,

and he admitted that he did not enjoy the work as much as he once had in order to both gather material for books and to escape the brutal new york winner. alger went out west via the railroad in 1890 returning to new york in the spring critics still found little to praise with the books that he wrote. the the magazine critic for example thought that in digging for gold published in 1892 alger attempts to mine the wealth that lies hidden in the early history of california, but he brings back little to enriches. maybe if you are frank hunter's peril published in 1896 the literary world writes that alger could not possibly be more pure in the selection of characters or more clumsy in their delineation. we hope boys are not to be satisfied with such poor stuff as this.

actually, they were horatio alger readily admitted. they did not outline the plot of a book in advance instead. he thought of an opening scene and simply started writing without even thinking about where each chapter would take him. he said i never fully understand a character to begin with but gradually become acquainted with it as i go on. the characters want to introduced gradually developed and in turn shape the story. alger helped these characters by talking to the actual boys themselves. usually every friday again. he lived in rooming houses. he would invite boys to his room. he usually and he would ask them questions the poet george steele seymour very minor poet in america literature was a guest at these events and he wrote years later that i did not see him take any notes, but it was understood that he was gathering material that boys personalities

were somehow in the process of filtering through to the printed page as i mentioned some of these boys appeared in the printed page and alger's books such as lois schick and andy gordon who was alger writes a school fellow of german extraction. biased 60s in the 1890s horatio alger's health was not particularly good. as you offer often suffered from bronchitis, so we still managed to keep up his writing he found excuses though to leave his desk and he began to spend more and more time out in natick, massachusetts with his sister and her husband amos. and also in some coastal resort areas in massachusetts and in maine, he would not work from months at a time. we'd simply sit out in the sun breathing in the air as he felt that all the sea air and the sun would be good for his lungs. besides as juvenile works

horatio algeria once more tackled adult fiction and 1895. he published the disagreeable woman under a pseudonym julian star. the new york times implies though that it is a story itself. not the main character who is disagreeable. the book was a poor seller even algae did not think much of it and only two copies or known to exist one of them in the library congress when it was deposited for copyright. algebra, had enough of new york by the mid-1890s and the winner of 1895 to 1896 1896 would be his last there. he was working too hard. his bronchitis was lengling his bronchitis would not go away and he wanted to be in natick to be with his sister augusta and her husband amos. he told a reporter in. in april that i that i have been working too hard. and it's the pleasure to be able

to rest a little i am staying out at natick with relatives now. i do not feel as energetic as i used to. and as i said many of his books were serialized in magazines prior to be in published in book form and alger who received about 250 dollars for a serial plus the world. he's from book sales once estimated as total income from writing between about 1866 and 1896 at about 100,000. and all those expenses in natick where you know not as great as living in new york retirement still naturally cut down his income considerably any word about having the money necessary to send his ward edward downey to business school. and by 1898 his income was so reduced to the arranged to have a half completed manuscript finished by one edward strata

meyer. he was a magazine editor who had published one of his novels. strata meyer who had later become famous as the author of the rover boys and the tom swift books would eventually complete 10 other books in alger's name. edward strathamara founded the stratumire syndicate in which various authors would write a series of books for children under pseudonyms. and by the way, there was no franklin w dixon who wrote the hardy boys his real name was leslie mcfarland, by the way, he and i corresponded for a while back in the 1970s and here is a blast on the past here. i am pictured with stratamira's daughter harriet who among authors once vote the nancy drew books, and i'm also pictured here with one of the authors of the bobsy twin books. by april 1899. alger was confined indoors at the home of his sister, augusta and natick.

he died on july 18th. 1899 with the official cause of death being heart disease a few of the characters a few of the boys whom he had mentioned in his books such as arthur burke's a character and chester rand acted as pallbearers. he was cremated with the ashes buried in the natick cemetery. and although he was not destitute alger was hardly prosperous and most of the bequestive in his will included copyrights manuscripts the books in his private library. alger wants estimated. that is 120 books sold about 800,000 copies and but after his death they were reprinted in the millions and cheap tencent often. sometimes a bridge editions and these these sold millions and millions and is total sales were estimated to be about about 17 million books. as executor of his brothers and state augusta.

did her best to fulfill her racial's wishes and his request. she destroyed all of his private papers. and although letters from alger to friends who are housed in libraries all around the country many of them are in the huntington in california. not one single letter to him exists nor are there any diaries any private papers which has really really complicated the task of biographers? what makes it even worse for anyone studying horatio alger is that it's since the 1930s many alger researchers had based their works upon a purely fabricated book published in 1928 by herbert r. mayes who years later would become editor of good housekeeping a director of saturday review and president of the mccall corporation. the date of alger's death is wrong. there's a list of algebra books in the book in his book, but some of them even though sounding like an algebra book

like plan and prosper and ben barton's battle collected with spend much time advertising for these books. they never existed. he made them all up. he has a maze has alger adopting a chinese boy name wing who gets run over by a horse never happened. he has algae. he has algae with a stutter never happened. he has alger's friends tormenting him calling him. holy horatio. the parsons son never happened. well this goes on and on. i met with mae's a few times in the early eight nineteen seventies and while i was editing the horatio society is publication. i published a series of letters on his book. and a few weeks after this the issue came out time magazine wrote about it and associated pressed on a wire releases reporters interviewed maze who said quote i told the allergen society that they should give me a dishonorary membership my god, the whole book was made up. it was supposed to be a serious

biography, but i was young and i found out pretty soon. it would take a lot of work and from what i read a horatio alger. he seemed like a -- dull idiot. now maize figured people would recognize the book for the hoax. he intended it to be and he was amazed when the book got good reviews. he did not want to offend the reviewers though and maze in the publisher decided to let it ride sell the books and be cover. the publication costs other books came out since then, of course in 1981 a friend of mine in the allergy society gary scharnhorst, and i we came out with a bibliography of criticism and commentary on algeria and a little short biography in 1985. gary did a full length biography, which i helped him with. now alger's books were popular for years though the image he now represents as a symbol for success is largely a 20th

century interpretation. algorithm self. simply wanted to write good moral stories for young people his characters for example, do not become fabulously wealthy, but simply comfortable and well off. in fact one historian coined the phrase begs to respectability instead of rags to riches. so it's rags to riches. we always think of also, although hard work certainly plays a part in every single algebra book. i have to admit there's a lot of good plain old fashioned luck, you know after all remember ragged --, you know. he became successful largely because he rescued james rockwell's young boy who fell under the river. he happened to be wealthy and set up set up bag of -- in business as one critic put it. i love this quote. no, alger, hero was so silly as to rescue anybody with less than a triple-a rating and dun & bradstreet. now the first two decades after

alger's death were characterized by a moral awakening of source with social and political reforms designed to correct the problems brought about their industrialization such as you know, monopolies political machines and algae's books sold millions and millions of copies at this time. partly because he seemed to praise honest entrepreneurs in a pre-industrial society like dragon -- james rockwell. fact one historian called alger a nostalgic spokesman of a dying order his books be -- in attempt to recreate the more harmonious society in which he was raised. during the economic prosperity of the roaring twenties the phrase alger hero was coined and the characters were viewed as business tycoons and during world war ii the hard-working horatio algeria hero was regarded as a symbol of capitalism as he is today and books and magazines like i show here are very or not at all in

common. i see these regularly here. we have alexander hamilton. it was a an entrepreneur of no small note himself as well as a founding father being compared to horatio alger. also an author in a 2012 cover story and national review questions whether the united states is still a land of opportunity where hard work can lead to success and by the way note the young boys boot blocking box there beneath this fee. one final note the rich waters society was founded in 1961. was originally an organization for alger book collectors, but now it includes collectors of all juvenile fiction dom novels boys and girls series books pulp magazines etc the authors can the members conduct research on alger and all these other authors. they conduct a research on alger's works. his life is influence on the culture of america forest publication called newsboy and

these next few slides are all books from the collection of a algae society a friend of mine named rob casper and these books here look rather plain, but they're all first and other additions published by the ak-laurin company of boston. lauren books are not all that hard to find but there are certainly hard to find in this buying a condition and bob has an excellent. probably the best collection ever about alger's books. note the colorful bindings here as well as the exceptional nice condition that this is the hallmark of rob's collection the ones in the upper left. there are all books from the luck and pluck series. i mentioned the luck and flux series before the six green books there at the top. those are all books in the bag of dix series. as well the top row here has a distance published by the hearst company these are these are easy to find the books published by

hurst as well as porter and coats. i mentioned them before too note the newsboyer in the spine the books on the bottom row here were all published by porter and coats co-a-t-e-s. they're called the brown apple editions because there's always a brown apple on the spine as as well as on the cover. one of my favorite publishers is the albert company b u r t the books here on the top row were all published by the albert company. the six volumes here on the left are all the sixth first editions of the books in the ragged -- series outages. most popular books. these are all published by the lowering company and note the the boot black on the spine here of the books. let's drag a deck payment fortune mark the match boy ruffin ready bend the luggage luggage boy and rufus and rose. and i also wanted to put in a plug. these are books for my

collection here and these are from the brave and bowl series and i mentioned these series before brave and bowl tattered tom lucky, you know, and the series titles are simply just that just names and like these books are on the brave and bowl series, but they they have no connection with each other there. the series name is just just out of name. and these books by the way are in very very fine condition and well worth the extremely modest some that i paid for them. and there were even games based on horatio's books, and these are all books my friend rob's collection. i mentioned the cost of books twice. it used to be very high with some first editions bringing hundreds of dollars the ease of finding books online has changed all that plus i have to admit people just don't collect horatio alger's books much anymore. some books are still kind of pricey a first edition of

bragged -- for example, and great condition would be pretty expensive, but there are many many bargains out there but as with anything online let the buyer beware is a is a good rule to follow here are two copies of an early 20th century algebra print edition for sale. these are books published at the turn of the century by ma donahue and company. i personally think 2995 is way too high to pay for that particular book. the algae society holds annual conventions and on the 150th anniversary of his birth in 1982 the united states post office issued a stamp honoring horatio alger with his first day of issue being at the allergy society convention and willow grove, pennsylvania. the stamp shows the opening illustration from the reprint editions of books in algiers bragged -- series.

the british waters society web page at horatio alger society.net provides much valuable information and advice about book collecting first editions etc. one last note by the way, the next convention of the various wilder society will be held here in fredericksburg from june 3rd to 6 to 2021. we are of course keeping our fingers crossed as to virus conditions case you're interested in buying a book an algebra. book the book sales opened the public. you're welcome to stop by. you will enjoy a few hours of good reading of course and one things for certain you will most certainly enjoy and look forward forward to a good happy ending. thank you very much. american history tv on c-span 3 every weekend documenting america's story funding comes

from these television companies and more including charter communications. broadband is a force for empowerment. that's why charter has invested billions building infrastructure upgrading technology empowering opportunity in communities big and small charter is connecting us charter communications along with these television companies supports american history tv on c-span, 3 as a public service. 60 years ago on april 17th 1961 a force of more than 1400 cia-trained cuban exiles launched an invasion at the bay of pigs on the southern coast of cuba their goal was the overthrow of communist leader fidel castro who had taken power only two years earlier in the cuban revolution next. we look back at the failed invasion and its consequences our guest is former cia historian nicholas dumevich who

now heads catholic universities intelligence studies program. in an hour dave gutierrez discusses his book patriots from the barrio the story of company e 141st infantry the only all mexican-american army army unit in world war ii. and in two hours on reel america our weekly series featuring archival films on public affairs more on the bay of pigs invasion. the assault has begun on the dictatorship of fidel castro cuban army pilots opened the first phase of organized revolts with bombing raids on three military bases two of the b-26 light bombers then seek asylum in florida on the heels of the air raids landings were affected by rebels at several places on the cuban coast and the rebellion against the red ting's dictator was on with the refugee pilot flaming a full scale army revolt near