Helping Himself; Or, Grant Thornton's Ambition
1886
Helping Himself; Or, Grant Thornton's Ambition
1886
In 1886 America, a fifteen-year-old boy named Grant Thornton faces a choice no child should have to make: his family's survival or his own future. When financial desperation forces his hand, Grant leaves school and steps into the brutal world of work, determined to lift his family out of poverty. His father, a humble minister, cannot provide for them. The local storekeeper, Mr. Tudor, is owed money that doesn't exist. So Grant does what millions of young Americans in the Gilded Age were taught to do: he refuses to surrender to circumstance. This is Horatio Alger at his most essential, the原型 of the rags-to-riches formula that defined an era's faith in self-making. Grant's journey through trial and opportunity captures something that still resonates: the radical belief that ordinary boys, through honesty, determination, and hard work, could become extraordinary men. It's a period piece, yes, but one that illuminates the engine of American ambition still running beneath the surface of modern life. For readers who want to understand where the dream came from, this is where it started.
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“DEAR SIR: Inclosed you will find a bill for groceries and other goods furnished to you in the last six months, amounting to sixty-seven dollars and thirty-four cents ($67.34). It ought to have been paid before. How you, a minister of the Gospel, can justify yourself in using goods which you don't pay for, I can't understand. If I remember rightly, the Bible says: 'Owe no man anything.' As I suppose you recognize the Bible””
— Horatio Alger Jr.
“wish we were not so terribly poor, Grant," said Mrs. Thornton, in a discouraged tone. "Is there anything new that makes you say so, mother?””
— Horatio Alger Jr.
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/helping-himself-or-grant-thornton-s-ambition-171ed454-75e2-4def-b2db-84589a8127e4"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read Helping Himself; Or, Grant Thornton's Ambition by Horatio Alger Jr. free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/helping-himself-or-grant-thornton-s-ambition-171ed454-75e2-4def-b2db-84589a8127e4)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/helping-himself-or-grant-thornton-s-ambition-171ed454-75e2-4def-b2db-84589a8127e4][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read Helping Himself; Or, Grant Thornton's Ambition by Horatio Alger Jr. free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/helping-himself-or-grant-thornton-s-ambition-171ed454-75e2-4def-b2db-84589a8127e4Cite this book
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Jr., Horatio Alger. Helping Himself; Or, Grant Thornton's Ambition. Lex, lex-books.com/book/helping-himself-or-grant-thornton-s-ambition-171ed454-75e2-4def-b2db-84589a8127e4.Jr., H. A. (1886). Helping Himself; Or, Grant Thornton's Ambition. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/helping-himself-or-grant-thornton-s-ambition-171ed454-75e2-4def-b2db-84589a8127e4Jr., Horatio Alger. Helping Himself; Or, Grant Thornton's Ambition. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/helping-himself-or-grant-thornton-s-ambition-171ed454-75e2-4def-b2db-84589a8127e4.
