Horatio Alger--My Outfit

I've already received one e-mail today pointing out that "your waining Society is back in the news some 100+ years later." The reference is to the Horatio Alger Society, of which I was president a few years ago and which I agreed to serve this year as vice president. HAS (our acronym) is a group of book collectors, people interested in American juvenile literature of the second half of the 19th century, and the continued interest which pops up now and then in media of our eponymous author who did have a problem coming up with more than one plot. In case it's not immediately apparent, HAS is a low-budget operation.

The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans is an organization that honors people whose lives it feels exemplify the Horatio Alger ideal of poor boy makes good. (There were a couple of his novels that featured girls, quite a step forward in those days!) The Association tends to recognize captains of industry and such; this has made it a very high-budget operation. It apparently chose to include Clarence Thomas some years ago as one of its annual inductees.

Today, the New York Times chose to feature his membership in a lengthy front-page story, which only seems significant enough for the front page--right lede no less--because of the scandal arising from his acceptance of gifts, trips, lodging, meals, etc., from rich people. Some of them have had some relationship with cases pending before the Court. Some of those people may have met him through the Association.

These people meet in places that you need not worry about the price because if you do, you can't afford it. Our Society's annual convention, which now attracts a bit more than a handful of members and their partners or friends, have been held in hostelries outside the beltways of small cities and only grudgingly do we agree to assemble at any place that charges much more than $100 a night. We've met at a Holiday Inn in Fredericksburg for three years because during the pandemic, it has been an easy place to hold our meetings.

In the past we've met all over the country, and I've been to our conventions in Catskill, N.Y.; Willow Grove, Pa.; Sacramento, Calif.; Shelbyville, Ind.; Bowie, Md.; and North Conway, N.H. No five-star resorts there.

We did succeed in getting a Horatio Alger Stamp issued some years ago. That was one of the very few occasions where we were involved in working with the Association on a common cause. It worked. Some f our members, who know everything there is to know about Alger, wrote the Alger bio the Association uses in its literature--for a fee.

Someone gave me an Alger novel when I was in junior high. Then I found a rack of them when I was still in my teens at Leary's Book Store in Philadelphia, one of the legendary old book stores that are hardly to be found anymore. My allowance enabled me to buy a couple. I got a kick out of reading Alger. The poor boy at the end of each book acquired fame, girl, and cash, not necessarily in that order. Triumph occurred by coincidence or happenstance.

I've collected a lot of them over the years. It was fun looking for them in the bookstores I ran across in traveling. I have a few first editions. Few of them or any of the books are worth much, definitely not what I paid for them. I'm not waiting for an invite from the Association.

I have gone to receptions at the Supreme Court. One was when I became a Fellow of the Institute for Court Management. Going to oral arguments, at least in past years, was more interesting. In retrospect, I think I've had more enjoyment from HAS than I would've found on a trip to the Alaskan back country with some rich people.