{"id":20018,"date":"2011-01-13T00:37:34","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T05:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=20018"},"modified":"2011-01-13T00:37:34","modified_gmt":"2011-01-13T05:37:34","slug":"horatio-alger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/01\/13\/horatio-alger\/","title":{"rendered":"Horatio Alger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today is Horatio Alger<\/a>‘s birthday (1832-1899).\u00a0 Frye was an avid reader of Alger as a boy and could apparenty recite whole passages as an adult.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, however, he was also somewhat sardonic about it: \u201cThe Horatio Alger books are wonderful propaganda for the capitalist system.\u00a0 They always end with the hero making five dollars a week\u2014with a chance for advancement.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 (Interview in The Telegram<\/em>, 25 March 1950)<\/p>\n

Here he is in Anatomy of Criticism<\/em> citing Alger to remind us that there’s a difference between a sociological and literary study of literature:<\/p>\n

There is no reason why a sociologist should not work exclusively on literary material, but if he does he should pay no attention to literary values. In his field Horatio Alger and the writer of the Elsie books are more important than Hawthorne or Melville, and a single issue of the Ladies\u2019 Home Journal <\/em>is worth all of Henry James. The literary critic using sociological data is similarly under no obligation to respect sociological values.\u00a0 (CW 21, 66)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Horatio Alger‘s birthday (1832-1899).\u00a0 Frye was an avid reader of Alger as a boy and could apparenty recite whole passages as an adult.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, however, he was also somewhat sardonic about it: \u201cThe Horatio Alger books are wonderful propaganda for the capitalist system.\u00a0 They always end with the hero making five dollars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birthdays","category-literary-criticism"],"yoast_head":"\nHoratio Alger - The Educated Imagination<\/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:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/01\/13\/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 - The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today is Horatio Alger‘s birthday (1832-1899).\u00a0 Frye was an avid reader of Alger as a boy and could apparenty recite whole passages as an adult.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, however, he was also somewhat sardonic about it: \u201cThe Horatio Alger books are wonderful propaganda for the capitalist system.\u00a0 They always end with the hero making five dollars […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/01\/13\/horatio-alger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-13T05:37:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2011\/01\/ALGER1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"287\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"373\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Happy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Happy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/01\/13\/horatio-alger\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/01\/13\/horatio-alger\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Happy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/#\/schema\/person\/666be62a4e8014df67296baeeaf4db95\"},\"headline\":\"Horatio Alger\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-01-13T05:37:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/01\/13\/horatio-alger\/\"},\"wordCount\":171,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/01\/13\/horatio-alger\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2011\/01\/ALGER1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Birthdays\",\"Literary Criticism\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/01\/13\/horatio-alger\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/01\/13\/horatio-alger\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/01\/13\/horatio-alger\/\",\"name\":\"Horatio Alger - 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