Alger hero

…famous and contribute the “Alger hero” to the American language. In a steady succession of books that are almost alike except for the names of their characters, he preached that by honesty, cheerful perseverance, and hard work, the poor but virtuous lad would have his just reward—though the reward…

…success dream popularized by Horatio Alger by portraying a hero who slides from bad to worse while doing the supposedly right thing. In his last years West worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. The Day of the Locust (1939) is, in the opinion of many, the best novel written about…