Horatio's Fans (4)

Horatio Alger Jr.

Author profile

About this author

edit data

Horatio Alger, Jr. (January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author, most famous for his novels following 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 about boys who succeed under the tutelage of older mentors were hugely popular in their day.

Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the son of a Unitarian minister, Alger entered Harvard University at the age of sixteen. Following graduation, he briefly worked in education before touring Europe for almost a year. He then entered the Harvard Divinity School, and, in 1864, took a position at a Unitarian church in Brewster...more Horatio Alger, Jr. (January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author, most famous for his novels following 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 about boys who succeed under the tutelage of older mentors were hugely popular in their day.

Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the son of a Unitarian minister, Alger entered Harvard University at the age of sixteen. Following graduation, he briefly worked in education before touring Europe for almost a year. He then entered the Harvard Divinity School, and, in 1864, took a position at a Unitarian church in Brewster, Massachusetts. Two years later, he resigned following allegations he had sexual relations with two teenage boys.[1] He retired from the ministry and moved to New York City where he formed an association with the Newsboys Lodging House and other agencies offering aid to impoverished children. His sympathy for the working boys of the city, coupled with the moral values learned at home, were the basis of his many juvenile rags to riches novels 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. He died in 1899.

The first full-length Alger biography was commissioned in 1927 and published in 1928, and along with many others that borrowed from it later proved to be heavily fictionalized parodies perpetuating hoaxes and made up anecdotes that "would resemble the tell-all scandal biographies of the time."[2] Other biographies followed, sometimes citing the 1928 hoax as fact. In the last decades of the twentieth century a few more reliable biographies were published that attempt to correct the errors and fictionalizations of the past.

For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/horatio-...(less)

combine editions
Books by Horatio Alger Jr.

Average rating: 3.24 · 1,110 ratings · 162 reviews · 216 distinct works

	Ragged Dick 3.14 avg rating — 536 ratings — published 1868 — 47 editions	My rating:
	Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward 3.33 avg rating — 110 ratings — published 1985 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Ragged Dick & Mark, the Match Boy 3.41 avg rating — 64 ratings — published 1962 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Struggling Upward, Or, Luke Larkin's Luck 3.71 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 1868 — 32 editions	My rating:
	Fame and Fortune 3.33 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 1868 — 27 editions	My rating:
	Do and Dare: A Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune 3.68 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1884 — 17 editions	My rating:
	Jack's Ward Or, The Boy Guardian 3.29 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2004 — 23 editions	My rating:
	Adrift in New York 3.16 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1903 — 37 editions	My rating:
	Brave and Bold 3.62 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 1874 — 16 editions	My rating:
	Mark, The Match Boy, Or, Richard Hunter's Ward 3.44 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 1869 — 3 editions	My rating:

More books by Horatio Alger Jr.…

Series by Horatio Alger Jr.

Ragged Dick series (6 books)
by Horatio Alger Jr.

3.17 avg rating — 641 ratings

Pacific Series (3 books)
by Horatio Alger Jr.

3.50 avg rating — 6 ratings

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Book Challenge: Inna's 200 in 2010	67	524	Apr 09, 2010 05:52am
The History Book ...: * #20 (US) JAMES A. GARFIELD (PRESIDENT) 1881	12	71	Jan 02, 2012 05:50am
The Seasonal Read...: Happy Birthday to...	674	538	Apr 20, 2012 06:36am

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Horatio to Goodreads.