You should check out a series of books from Leo Edwards about a boy named Jerry Todd and his chums. Written in the 1920s and 30s and set in a fictional town called Tutter, Illinois, these books are funny adventures about a group of boys who are "upright manly, and on the square." Very funny & always morally honest.
Adams/Optic seems to be a clear link between the Horatio Alger school and the early days of science fiction magazine publishing, whose output seemed to be about the kind of scientific and technological things Wolf and his contemporaries could, would and did achieve as men.
Unintentionally or not, these stories from a time where boys had agency champion those that thrive in RELATABLE pursuits. In our era where the boys get treated as incapable, their only shot at envisioning agency is with superpowers or something like the Ready Player One metaverse.
You should check out a series of books from Leo Edwards about a boy named Jerry Todd and his chums. Written in the 1920s and 30s and set in a fictional town called Tutter, Illinois, these books are funny adventures about a group of boys who are "upright manly, and on the square." Very funny & always morally honest.
Adding to the list!
Adams/Optic seems to be a clear link between the Horatio Alger school and the early days of science fiction magazine publishing, whose output seemed to be about the kind of scientific and technological things Wolf and his contemporaries could, would and did achieve as men.
Unintentionally or not, these stories from a time where boys had agency champion those that thrive in RELATABLE pursuits. In our era where the boys get treated as incapable, their only shot at envisioning agency is with superpowers or something like the Ready Player One metaverse.
I’ve heard there’s a rogue press working on fixing this