Horatio Alger, Jr. (January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author whose principal output was formulaic juvenile novels that followed the adventures of bootblacks, newsboys, peddlers, buskers, and other impoverished children in their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of respectable middle-class security and comfort. His novels were hugely popular in their day.
Easton Press Horatio Alger Jr. books
Ragged Dick or Street Life in New York with The Boot Blacks - Books That Changed The World - 1993
(This page contains affiliate links for which we may be compensated.)
Who was Horatio Alger?
The first Alger biography was published in 1928, and later proved to be heavily fictionalized. Other biographies followed, sometimes citing the 1928 hoax as fact. In the last decades of the twentieth century however, a few reliable biographies were published that corrected the errors and fictionalizations of the past.
Many of Alger's works have been described as rags to riches stories, illustrating how down-and-out boys might be able to achieve the American Dream of wealth and success through hard work, courage, determination, and concern for others. This widely held view involves Alger's characters achieving extreme wealth and the subsequent remediation of their "old ghosts." Alger is noted as a significant figure in the history of American cultural and social ideals.
Early years
Alger was born in what is now Bob Thomas Phillville on January 13, 1832, to Horatio Alger, a Unitarian minister, and Olive Fenno. Horatio, Jr. was tutored at home by his father until the age of ten, when he was admitted to the Gates Academy in Marlborough, Massachusetts. A year after graduating from Gates, he was admitted to Harvard University at age 16. For the next four years, he studied under Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with the intention of one day becoming a poet. After graduating, he devoted himself to teaching and writing, with uneven success. Coming to the conclusion that he did not like teaching, he returned to Harvard in 1857 to pursue the ministry. After attending Harvard Divinity School from 1857 to 1860, he took a ten-month tour of Europe and produced works of a patriotic nature.Ministry
In December 1864, Alger took a position as minister of the First Parish Unitarian Church of Brewster on Cape Cod. At the start of 1866 he abruptly resigned, left town, and retired to South Natick, where his father was then the pastor. Church records uncovered after Alger's death indicate that stories had begun to circulate concerning his conduct with two teenage boys in the parish. These were investigated and proved to be true.In letters now housed at the Harvard Divinity School, Brewster church officials wrote to the hierarchy in Boston, complaining "that Horatio Alger, Jr. has been practicing on [the boys of the church] at different times deeds that are too revolting to relate." Nevertheless, they are related: "gross immorality, and a most heinous crime, a crime of no less magnitude than the abominable and revolting crime of unnatural familiarity with boys ... which he neither denied or attempted to extenuate but received it with apparent calmness of an old offender – and hastily left town on the very next train for parts unknown."
In response to complaints by the church, Alger Sr. wrote Charles Lowe, the American Unitarian Association (AUA) general secretary, stating that his son would resign from the ministry and not seek another church. All parties involved agreed to keep matters quiet – the parents of the boys reluctantly. So far as is known, Alger discussed this incident only once, in 1870, with psychologist William James.
Later in life, Alger wrote a poem, "Friar Anselmo's Sin," which seems to be somewhat autobiographical. It begins:
Friar Anselmo (God's grace may he win!)
Committed one sad day a deadly sin;
...
The poem goes on to recount the friar's rendering of aid to a wounded traveler and ends with Anselmo's redemption upon the appearance of an angel who exhorts Anselmo to dedicate himself to service:
Thy guilty stains shall be washed white again,
By noble service done thy fellow-men.
New York City
In 1866, after the Brewster incident, Alger moved to New York City, which proved to be a turning point in his career. He was immediately drawn into the world of impoverished young bootblacks, newspaper boys, and peddlers. He spent much time with young men and often ate his meals and slept at the Newsboys' Lodging House. He also invited boys to his small apartment in a boarding house.Alger's empathy with the young working men, coupled with the moral values he learned at home, formed the basis of the first popular work, Ragged Dick, first serialized in 1867 in Student and Schoolmate, a journal of moral literature for children. The success of the tale prompted the publisher A.K. Loring to offer Alger a contract, and, in 1868, Ragged Dick was expanded and published in book format. It proved more popular than its serialization, and generated a vast collection of novels with the same theme: the rise from rags to riches. In fact, the theme became synonymous with Alger, whose formula for success was based on luck, pluck, and virtue.
Essentially, all of Alger's early novels are the same: a young boy struggles to escape poverty through hard work and clean living. However, it is not the hard work and clean living that rescue the boy from his situation, but rather a wealthy older gentleman, who admires the boy as a result of some extraordinary act of bravery or honesty that the boy has performed. For example, the boy might rescue a child from an overturned carriage or find and return the man's stolen watch. Often the older man takes the boy into his home as a ward or companion.
Although a "Horatio Alger story" has come to signify someone who begins with few resources and ends with vast riches, Alger's characters do not usually become wealthy. His protagonists typically achieve comparatively low-level jobs in companies, often attaining personal stability but not wealth or prominent position. Veteran actor Walter Brennan launched a new television series in 1964, The Tycoon, and entitled the first episode "Horatio Alger Again". In Brennan's ABC series, the character Walter Andrews is an Horatio Alger-style person who did become very wealthy and then used his resources to help others.
Later years and death
Despite his remarkable literary output, Alger never became rich from his writing. According to legend, he gave most of his money to homeless boys and in some instances was actually conned out of his earnings by boys he tried to help. His books expressed an optimistic wholesomeness no longer popular, but the moral messages they relayed were an important factor in popularizing the American dream. At the time of his death, Alger was living with his sister Augusta and her husband in Natick, Massachusetts. She destroyed all his personal papers. He is buried in the family plot in Glenwood Cemetery, South Natick.Horatio Alger books in order
Voices of the Past (1849)Fair Harvard (book) (1852)
A Welcome to May May (1853)
Bertha's Christmas Vision. An Autumn Sheaf (1856)
Nothing to Do: A Tilt at Our Best Society (1857)
Nothing To Eat (1857)
Frank's Campaign; or, What Boys can do on the Farm for the Camp (1864)
Marie Bertrand (1864)
Paul Prescott's Charge: A Story for Boys (1865)
Charlie Codman's Cruise. A Story for Boys (1866)
Helen Ford (1866)
Timothy Crump's Ward; or, The New Years Loan, And What Became of It (1866)
Fame and Fortune; or, The Progress of Richard Hunter (1868)
John Maynard: A Ballad of Lake Erie January (1868)
Luck And Pluck; or, John Oakley's Inheritance (1869)
Mark the Match Boy; or, Richard Hunter's Ward (1869)
Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Bootblacks (1868)
Struggling Upward; or, Luke Larkin's Luck (1868)
Ralph Raymond's Heir; or, The Merchant's Crime (1869)
Rough and Ready; or, Life Among the New York Newsboys (1869)
Ben The Luggage Boy; or, Among the Wharves (1870)
Rufus and Rose; or, The Fortunes of Rough and Ready (1870)
Sink or Swim; or, Harry Raymond's Resolve (1870)
Paul the Peddler; or the Fortunes of a Young Street Merchant (1871)
Strong and Steady; or, Paddle Your Own Canoe (1871)
Tattered Tom; or, The Story of a Street Arab (1871)
Phil the Fiddler; or, The Story of a Young Street Musician (1872)
Slow and Sure; The Story of Paul Hoffman the Young Street-Merchant (1872)
Strive and Succeed; or, The Progress of Walter Conrad (1872)
Bound to Rise; or, Up the Ladder (1873)
Try and Trust; or, The Story of a Bound Boy (1873)
Brave and Bold; or, The Fortunes of Robert Rushton (1874)
Julius; or, The Street Boy out West (1874)
Risen from the Ranks; or, Harry Walton's Success (1874)
Grand'ther Baldwin's Thanksgiving (1875)
Herbert Carter's Legacy; or, The Inventor's Son 1875)
Jack's Ward; or, The Boy Guardian (1875)
Seeking His Fortune, And Other Dialogues (1875)
St. Nicholas (novel) (1875)
The Young Outlaw; or, Adrift In The Streets (1875)
Sam's Chance; and How He Improved It (1876)
Shifting for Himself; or, Gilbert Greyson's Fortune's (1876)
Life of Edwin Forrest (William Rounseville Alger) (1877)
The New Schoolma'am; or, A Summer in North Sparta (anonymous 1877)
Wait and Hope; or, Ben Bradford's Motto (1877)
The Western Boy; or, The Road to Success (1878)
The Young Adventurer; or, Tom's Trip Across the Plains (1878)
The Telegraph Boy (1879)
The Young Miner; or, Tom Nelson in California (1879)
Tony the Hero (1880)
The Young Explorer; or, Among the Sierras (1880)
From Canal Boy to President; or, The Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield (1881)
Ben's Nugget; or, A Boy's Search for Fortune (1882)
From Farm Boy to Senator: Being the History of the Boyhood and Manhood of Daniel Webster (1882)
Abraham Lincoln: the Backwoods Boy; or, How A Young Rail-Splitter Became President (1883)
The Train Boy (1883)
The Young Circus Rider; or, The Mystery of Robert Rudd (1883)
Dan, the Detective (1884)
Do and Dare; or A Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune (1884)
Hector's Inheritance; or, The Boys of Smith Institute (1885)
Helping Himself; or, Grant Thornton's Ambition (1886)
Frank Fowler, the Cash Boy (1887)
Number 91; or, The Adventures of a New York Telegraph Boy (1887)
The Store Boy; or, The Fortunes of Ben Barclay (1887)
Bob Burton; or, The Young Ranchman of the Missouri (1888)
The Errand Boy; or, How Phil Brent Won Success (1888)
Tom Temple's Career (1888)
Tom Thatcher's Fortune (1888)
Tom Tracy (1888)
The Young Acrobat of the Great North American Circus (1888)
Luke Walton; or, The Chicago Newsboy (1889)
The Erie Train Boy (1890)
Five Hundred Dollars; or, Jacob Marlowe's Secret (1890)
Mark Stanton (1890)
Ned Newton; or, The Fortunes of a New York Bootblack (1890)
A New York Boy (1890)
The Odds Against Him; or, Carl Crawford's Experience (1890)
Dean Dunham; or, The Waterford Mystery (1891)
Digging for Gold. A Story of California (1892)
The Young Boatman of Pine Point (1892)
Cast Upon the Breakers (1893)
Facing the World; or, The Haps and Mishaps of Harry Vane (1893)
In a New World; or, Among the Gold-Fields of Australia (1893)
Only an Irish Boy; Or, Andy Burke's Fortunes and Misfortunes (1894)
Victor Vane, The Young Secretary (1894)
The Disagreeable Woman; A Social Mystery (1895)
Frank Hunter's Peril (1896)
The Young Salesman (1896)
Frank and Fearless; or, The Fortunes of Jasper Kent (1897)
Walter Sherwood's Probation (1897)
A Boy's Fortune; or, The Strange Adventures of Ben Baker (1898)
The Young Bank Messenger (1898)
Jed, The Poor House Boy (1899)
Mark Mason's Victory; or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Telegraph Boy (1899)
Rupert's Ambition (1899)
Silas Snobden's Office Boy (1899)
A Debt of Honor. The Story of Gerald Lane's Success in the Far West (1900)
Falling in With Fortune; or, The Experiences of a Young Secretary (1900)
Out for Business; or, Robert Frost's Strange Career (1900)
Ben Bruce. Scenes in the Life of a Bowery Newsboy (1901)
Lester's Luck (1901)
Nelson the Newsboy; or, Afloat in New York (1901)
Tom Brace: Who He Was and How He Fared (1901)
Young Captain Jack; or, The Son of a Soldier (1901)
Adrift in the City; or, Oliver Conrad's Plucky Fight (1902)
Andy Grant's Pluck (1902)
A Rolling Stone; or, The Adventures of a Wanderer (1902)
Striving for Fortune; or, Walter Griffith's Trials and Successes (1902)
Tom Turner's Legacy (1902)
The World Before Him (1902)
Bernard Brooks' Adventures. The Story of a Brave Boy's Trials (1903)
Chester Rand; or, A New Path to Fortune (1903)
Forging Ahead (1903)
Adrift in New York; or, Tom and Florence Braving the World (1904)
Finding a Fortune (1904)
Jerry the Backwoods Boy; or, The Parkhurst Treasure (1904)
Lost at Sea; or, Robert Roscoe's Strange Cruise (1904)
From Farm to Fortune; or Nat Nason's Strange Experience (1905)
Making His Mark (1905)
Mark Manning's Mission. The Story of a Shoe Factory Boy (1905)
The Young Book Agent; or, Frank Hardy's Road to Success (1905)
Joe the Hotel Boy, or Winning Out by Pluck (1906)
Randy of the River; or, The Adventures of a Young Deckhand (1906)
The Young Musician; or, Fighting His Way (1906)
Ben Logan's Triumph; or, The Boys of Boxwood Academy (1908)
Wait and Win. The Story of Jack Drummond's Pluck (1908)
Robert Coverdale's Struggle; or, On the Wave of Success (1910)
Joe's Luck; or Always Wide Awake (1913)
The Cousin's Conspiracy
In Search of Treasure. The Story of Guy's Eventful Voyage
Uncompleted works
Novels uncompleted at Alger's death and subsequently completed by Edward Stratemeyer include Out for Business, Falling in with Fortune, Nelson, the Newsboy, Young Captain Jack, Jerry, the Backwoods Boy, Lost at Sea, From Farm to Fortune, The Young Book Agent, Randy of the River, Joe, the Hotel Boy, and Ben Logan's Triumph. Perhaps to capture some of Alger's popularity, Stratemeyer also wrote some of his novels using Alger's name as a pseudonym.Horatio Alger Jr. quotes
"Wealth alone will not yield happiness."
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!"
"The difference between the rich merchant and the ragged fellow... consists... in the fact that the one has used his ability... and the other has suffered his to become stagnant..."
Source and additional information: Horatio Alger