It's a Horatio Alger Story

I've never read a Horatio Alger story, but I've heard the expression all my life. The expression refers to a classic rags-to-riches narrative, where someone overcomes poverty, hardship, or adversity through hard work, determination, and moral virtue to achieve success. 

The author of this series of books was Horatio Alger Jr., a 19th-century American author who wrote over 100 popular novels, mostly for young boys, featuring protagonists who rise from humble beginnings to middle-class respectability. As you can see from the titles here, the stories tend to emphasize self-reliance, perseverance, and luck—like being in the right place at the right time or meeting a benefactor. The reason Alger is not included in lists of "Great American Authors" is that all his books followed the same formula. Though he never tired of producing them, sales tapered off as the stories grew stale and predictable. 

What's funny is how well-known the expression is, whereas I doubt that I have ever actually met anyone who has read a Horatio Alger story. The phrase is commonly used to describe real-life success stories that mirror the archetype. Nowadays some would say the idealism expressed in these stories is dated, as Alger’s tales reflect a simpler, more moralistic view of success that doesn’t always align with modern complexities or cynicism. (Again, I admit to not having read any of the stories and base what I do know on personal speculation and a lecture I heard several years back about American bestsellers.)

For what it's worth, if your interest is piqued by this brief intro, you can find some of the originals, pictured above, at Chester Creek Books & Antiques here in Duluth.

* * * 

Here are some quotes attributed to this 19th century author.

--Success does not mean the absence of failure; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives.

--To err is human, to forgive divine.

--So long as there is life, hope is never absent.

--There is nothing more powerful than honesty, and nothing more valuable than integrity.

--The surest way to achieve success is to act as if it was already within your grasp.

--There is no royal road to learning; it comes only through persevering effort, hard work, and constant self-improvement.

--Opportunities don't happen. You create them.

--The only way to do great work is to love what you do.

--Your destiny is not determined by your circumstances, but by your choices.

* * *

 

Against All Odds: The Rags to Riches Story of Sarah Breedlove Walker

“You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you, you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.”
-–Will Smith, The Pusuit of Happyness

"Success Motivation" seems to have become a cottage industry in this country. It didn't start with Tony Robbins. The list of familiar names in this genre is a long one: Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich), Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Dale Carnegie, and the seed corn for many of these -- Horatio Alger. Nowadays with social media we've got a whole new generation of self-empowerment gurus tooting the horn for blogging and social media as the new avenue to bank vaults of revenue.

Whereas it's fairly easy to poke fun of get-rich-quick hucksterism (as P.T. Barnum observed, a sucker is born every minute), in truth this country has from its earliest foundations been built on dreams. The Pilgrims and other early settlers saw America as a New Eden, a land of opportunity and possibilities. The Founding Fathers risked all they had to wrestle this unformed body of people into an independent land of opportunity. If you were a negro slave, however, the American Dream was not quite the same experience.

Horatio Alger published 100 books about poor boys who achieved success and riches through hard work, determination and integrity. Though the later books became caricatures of the foundational narrative (Ragged Dick) the "Horatio Alger story" became so much a part of the American culture for the next century that you never had to read any of the books and you knew the story.

ALL THESE THOUGHTS came to mind at once when I read the PBS account of Grassroots Saleswoman Sarah Breedlove Walker. Born to freed slaves just after the Civil War, she was poor, illiterate and a woman, the most unlikely candidate for a Horatio Alger rags-to-riches adventure that you'd ever encounter. Walker became one of the wealthiest women in America and a major fountain of philanthropic influence. She did this at a time when women could not own property, did not have the right to vote, and women were pretty much prevented from being in management.

Walker began her "career" as a washerwoman, bringing home a buck and a half a day to support her and her daughter. Over time she found inspiration from Booker T. Washington who encouraged blacks to learn skills and lift themselves up by hard work and "emphasizing good character."

The message resonated and Sarah Breedlove Walker pursued her dream. I can imagine that there were ample quantities of nay-sayers telling her that she'd never accomplish what she set out to do, making a small fortune in beauty products. The PBS account states:

By 1910, Walker had moved the Mme. C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company to the railroad hub of Indianapolis, Indiana. Advertising and marketing became the keys to her success. One of the largest employers of African American women, she carefully screened, groomed, and trained a 3,000-person strong sales force that was motivated by working on commission. In addition to door-to-door sales, Walker sold via mail order, and personally demonstrated her products in churches, schools, and other gathering places. She took lessons in public speaking and penmanship, and cultivated a striking persona, in fine clothing and a chauffeur-driven electric carriage.

Her contributions to African American orphanages and a new fledgling organization called the NAACP made her one of the best known women in America during her lifetime.

What is your dream? Don't listen to the naysayers. Nurture it.

* * * *

“The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart, this you will build your life by, and this you will become.” –James Allen