What the Victorian history of self-help reveals about the myth of individualism. Stories of hardworking characters who lift themselves from rags to riches abound in the Victorian era. From the popularity of such stories, it is clear that the Victorians valorized personal ambition in ways that previous generations had not. In Material Ambitions, Rebecca Richardson explores this phenomenon in light of the under-studied reception history of Samuel Smiles's 1859 publication, Self-Help: With Illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance. A compilation of vignettes about captains of industry, artists, and inventors who persevered through failure and worked tirelessly to achieve success in their respective fields, Self-Help links individual ambition to the growth of the nation. Contextualizing Smiles's work in a tradition of Renaissance self-fashioning, eighteenth-century advice books, and inspirational biography, Richardson argues that the burgeoning self-help genre of the Victorian era offered a narrative structure that linked individual success with collective success in a one-to-one relationship. Advocating for a broader cultural account of the ambitious hero narrative, Richardson argues that reading these biographies and self-help texts alongside fictional accounts of driven people complicates the morality tale that writers like Smiles took pains to invoke. In chapters featuring the works of Harriet Martineau, Dinah Craik, Thackeray, Trollope, and Miles Franklin, Richardson demonstrates that Victorian fiction dramatized ambition by suggesting where it runs up against the limits of an individual's energy and ability, where it turns into competition, or where it risks upsetting a socio-ecological system of finite resources. The upward mobility plots of John Halifax, Gentleman or Vanity Fair suggest the dangers of zero-sum thinking, particularly evidenced by contemporary preoccupations with Malthusian and Darwinian discourses. Intertwining the methodologies of disability studies and ecocriticism, Material Ambitions persuasively unmasks the longstanding myth that ambitious individualism can overcome disadvantageous systematic and structural conditions.

Ambition drives people to succeed. Ambition can make the price of success irrelevant. Ambition can kill your soul. Sherry Proper works hard to keep her life simple. She wants to stick to the important things: do good, interesting work, spend time with interesting friends and lovers. Now her tendency to stick her nose into the wrong working of things is tearing that worled apart! Her work and life have fused together and it's gotten impossible to separate them. Crime and love, passion and paranoia make for a strange, sometimes unpalatable, brew. A compelling story of urban crime, greed, and corruption and the danger of looking too closely at any of it. Get a copy now!

Archie Ferguson is the last of the original fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants Alaska bush pilots to be the subject of a biography. Dubbed Alaska's Clown Prince," he added many hilarious chapters to Alaska's history. He is also the originator of the "Arctic Bump," current practice of airline pilots who give a blast of power as they fly over the Arctic Circle to provide gullible tourists the impression that the air north of the Arctic Circle is different than air south of the Arctic Circle. His title, "the Craziest Pilot in the World, was given to him by The Saturday Evening Post in its December 1945 issue. Ferguson, who died in 1967, was an excellent example of the colorful character/con men who made Alaska what it is today."

Archie Annual #3 was originally published in 1951 and includes over 100 pages. Welcome to Riverdale, the home of everyone’s favorite teenager, Archie Andrews - and his closest friends! Dive into these beloved and classic Archie stories, which feature all the elements that have become an important part of pop culture. See the love triangle that includes girl-next-door Betty Cooper and wealthy socialite, Veronica Lodge! Share a burger with Archie’s best pal, Jughead Jones! Square off with tough-talking Reggie Mantle! Sit back and enjoy a chocolate shake at Pop’s! It’s all here for you to enjoy. Prepare to experience wonders of the teens' beloved hometown with stories like "Watch the Birdie," "in The "Male Bag"," and more!

Meet your new neighbor, Archie! When a vampire vixen moves into a “haunted” property near Archie’s house, strange things start happening. It’s weird enough that this mystery woman moved in late at night, but when Archie hears ominous noises coming from her house, he’s downright frightened! Is Archie just over-reacting, or is there something sinister going on in Riverdale? Find out in the fearsome first story “Midnight Madness!”