{"id":60629,"date":"2020-11-08T20:43:21","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T01:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/?post_type=lecture&#038;p=60629"},"modified":"2024-04-30T10:08:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T14:08:22","slug":"horatio-alger","status":"publish","type":"lecture","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/lecture\/horatio-alger\/","title":{"rendered":"Horatio Alger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"wp-block-umw-hero alignfull umw-custom-block umw-hero umw-hero--dark-text umw-hero--white umw-hero--with-no-media\"><div class=\"umw-hero__inner\"><div class=\"umw-hero__media\"><\/div><div class=\"umw-hero__title\"><div class=\"container\"><div class=\"umw-hero__title__wrapper\"><div class=\"umw-hero__eyebrow\">great lives lecture series<\/div><h1 class=\"umw-hero__title__header\">Horatio Alger<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-umw-hero-ctas alignfull\"><div class=\"umw-hero__links\"><div class=\"container\"><div class=\"umw-hero__links__wrapper\">\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n<div class=\"wpv-view-output\" data-toolset-views-view-editor=\"2aa5fefabeadec0ded14a0649e54f984\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-toolset-views-view-editor wpv-gutenberg-view-wrapper-61885\">\n\n\n<div id=\"wpv-view-layout-61885-CATTR079f327bd5a0bbe2d7757647b4f260ed\" class=\"js-wpv-view-layout js-wpv-layout-responsive js-wpv-view-layout-61885-CATTR079f327bd5a0bbe2d7757647b4f260ed\" data-viewnumber=\"61885-CATTR079f327bd5a0bbe2d7757647b4f260ed\" data-pagination=\"{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;61885&quot;,&quot;query&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;disabled&quot;,&quot;effect&quot;:&quot;fade&quot;,&quot;duration&quot;:500,&quot;speed&quot;:5,&quot;pause_on_hover&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;stop_rollover&quot;:&quot;false&quot;,&quot;cache_pages&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;preload_images&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;preload_pages&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;preload_reach&quot;:1,&quot;spinner&quot;:&quot;builtin&quot;,&quot;spinner_image&quot;:&quot;\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/plugins\/toolset-blocks\/embedded\/res\/img\/ajax-loader.gif&quot;,&quot;callback_next&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;manage_history&quot;:&quot;enabled&quot;,&quot;has_controls_in_form&quot;:&quot;disabled&quot;,&quot;infinite_tolerance&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;max_pages&quot;:1,&quot;page&quot;:1,&quot;base_permalink&quot;:&quot;\/greatlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lecture\/60629?wpv_view_count=61885-CATTR079f327bd5a0bbe2d7757647b4f260ed&amp;wpv_paged=WPV_PAGE_NUM&quot;,&quot;loop&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;data&quot;:[],&quot;id&quot;:0}}\" data-permalink=\"\/greatlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lecture\/60629?wpv_view_count=61885-CATTR079f327bd5a0bbe2d7757647b4f260ed\">\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n          <h2 class=\"lectureDate\">Lecture Date: February 16, 2021<\/h2>\n\n<h3>The John and Linda Coker Lecture<\/h3>\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"2021 Great Lives, Horatio Alger, Jr\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/496982373?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"533\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<div class=\"topicSummary\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/11\/Horatio-Alger-195x300.png\" class=\"attachment-medium alignright\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" style=\"\" srcset=\"\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/11\/Horatio-Alger-195x300.png 195w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/11\/Horatio-Alger.png 423w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><p>Probably no author of children\u2019s books during the last 30 years of the nineteenth century was more popular than Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832\u20131899). A writer of so-called \u201crags to riches\u201d stories, his name is fairly recognizable today as a synonym for success. Many magazine and newspaper writers, for example, observe in profiles of persons who were poor early on in their lives, but who worked hard and achieved prosperity, that \u201ctheir careers read like those of Horatio Alger\u2019s heroes.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But do they? His books sold millions of copies, but few authors have been so misrepresented by their biographers as has Horatio Alger. Since the 1930s, almost all Alger biographers have based their works upon a purely fabricated book published in 1928 by Herbert R. Mayes, who years later would become editor of <cite>Good Housekeeping<\/cite>, a director of <cite>Saturday Review<\/cite>, and president of the McCall Corporation. Jack Bales has taught numerous UMW students about the significance of primary sources, and in his own search to find the lost life of Horatio Alger, he has pored over hundreds of them. The true facts about this famous nineteenth-century author and symbol of American success are showcased in his presentation for UMW\u2019s Great Lives program.<\/p>\n<p>For further reading on Horatio Alger, see <a href=\"https:\/\/fredericksburg.com\/opinion\/great-lives-horatio-alger-wrote-stories-of-poor-boys-who-made-good\/article_d5863003-b9d1-520c-9a65-99c72d8139a1.amp.html\"><em>an op-ed by Jack Bales<\/em><\/a>, published in the Free Lance-Star.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"lectureSpeaker\" style=\"padding-top: 1em;\">Speaker: Jack Bales<\/h2>\n<div class=\"speakerInfo\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/11\/Jack-Bales-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail alignleft\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" style=\"\" srcset=\"\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/11\/Jack-Bales-150x150.jpg 150w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/11\/Jack-Bales-50x50.jpg 50w, \/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/11\/Jack-Bales-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\n<p>Jack Bales\u2019s career at the University of Mary Washington spanned more than 40 years, and he retired in 2020 as Reference and Humanities Librarian Emeritus. He is a longtime member of the Horatio Alger Society and is the past editor of its bimonthly publication,<cite> Newsboy<\/cite>. He co-authored, with Gary Scharnhorst, <cite>Horatio Alger, Jr.: An Annotated Bibliography of Comment and Criticism <\/cite>(1981), and he assisted Scharnhorst with <cite>The Lost Life of Horatio Alger, Jr. <\/cite>(1985). Bales has published many works on the Chicago Cubs, including <cite>Before They Were the Cubs: The Early Years of Chicago\u2019s First Professional Baseball Team <\/cite>(2019). <\/p>\n<p>Bales lives in Fredericksburg and is the father of two children, Patrick and Laura. When not researching and writing, he enjoys hiking with them, particularly in the Shenandoah Mountains.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"season":[1244],"class_list":{"0":"post-60629","1":"lecture","2":"type-lecture","3":"status-publish","5":"season-1244","6":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Horatio Alger - Great Lives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/lecture\/horatio-alger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Horatio Alger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/lecture\/horatio-alger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Great Lives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-30T14:08:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/lecture\/horatio-alger\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/lecture\/horatio-alger\/\",\"name\":\"Horatio Alger - 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