Bertie Charles Forbes grew up in the Horatio Alger tradition. He can boast of rising at 5 a.m. (aged 12) and walking half a mile through the fields of Aberdeenshire to shine 20 pairs of shoes. He did odd jobs at the age of 9, taught himself shorthand at 13, worked 60 hours as a printer's devil for 75ยข a week at 14. In the 46 years since then, B. C. Forbes has made a career of discovering other Alger heroes. Worming the life stories out of some 500 men, he has splashed them reverently across the continent in...
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