Silas Snobden's office boy

by Horatio Alger Jr.

Serialized in Argosy 1889–90 under the pseudonym Arthur Lee Putnam. Finally published in book form, after some false starts, in 1973 (!).

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1890

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Josephine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Formulaic? Of course. It's a Horatio Alger novel.

Amusing bit of fluff, to while away an afternoon? Of course. It's a Horatio Alger novel.

Same basic pattern as all (and I mean ALL) the other Horatio Algers: plucky young lad, in poverty, makes good through a) hard work b) his boundless good nature and c) a whopping huge chunk of luck.

This one's (surprise surprise) about an office boy who lives with his mother; she, widowed, had married a thorough wrong 'un who's just been released from Sing Sing. Our Plucky Protagonist is let go from his position when the nasty clerk and his nasty (and lazy and dishonest) nephew plot against him.....but Our Protagonist lands on his feet (Of course, it's a Horatio Alger novel) First, he returns a sheaf of notes to an aged dilettante who's been amusing himself by writing a history of the Saracens. Said Dilettante hires him, with his young eyes, to transcribe notes. Then Plucky Protagonist befriends an ill boy, whose wealthy and doting father is often called away on business. Doting Father hires P.P. to spend time with Ill Son.

Scurrilous Stepfather realizes Ill Son, through P.P., might be....I'l stop there to avoid any egregious spoilers. Though that said, I don't think it'll be too much of a giveaway to say that, simply everyone gets what they deserve.

[Rachel Florek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course I liked it - it is Horatio Alger, Jr. and I love all his books!