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Horatio Alger Jr.

Born

in Chelsea, Massachusetts, The United States

January 13, 1832

Died

July 18, 1899

Genre

Children's, Young Adult Fiction

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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 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.
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Horatio Alger Jr.’s books

Average rating: 3.6 · 7,187 ratings · 811 reviews · 540 distinct works • Similar authors

	Ragged Dick (Ragged Dick, #1) 3.33 avg rating — 3,052 ratings — published 1868	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward 3.40 avg rating — 282 ratings — published 1868 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fame and Fortune (Ragged Dick, #2) 3.98 avg rating — 237 ratings — published 1868 — 254 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ragged Dick & Mark, the Match Boy 3.68 avg rating — 174 ratings — published 1869 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Adrift in New York 3.57 avg rating — 166 ratings — published 1902 — 186 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Do and Dare: A Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune 3.79 avg rating — 138 ratings — published 1884 — 166 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Struggling Upward, Or, Luke Larkin's Luck 3.68 avg rating — 127 ratings — published 1868 — 133 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mark the Match Boy (Ragged Dick, #3) 3.97 avg rating — 117 ratings — published 1869 — 61 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Brave and Bold by Horatio Alger Jr., 1st World Library (Editor) 3.88 avg rating — 94 ratings — published 1874 — 145 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cash Boy 3.73 avg rating — 97 ratings — published 1875 — 205 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Horatio Alger Jr.…

Series by Horatio Alger Jr.

Ragged Dick (6 books)
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Horatio Alger Jr.

3.44 avg rating — 3,753 ratings

Tattered Tom (7 books)
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Horatio Alger Jr.

3.92 avg rating — 283 ratings

Luck and Pluck (8 books)
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Horatio Alger Jr.

3.80 avg rating — 269 ratings

Brave and Bold (3 books)
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3.90 avg rating — 220 ratings

Pacific Series (3 books)
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3.87 avg rating — 79 ratings

More series by Horatio Alger Jr.…

Quotes by Horatio Alger Jr. (?)

“There are many boys, and men too, who, like Micky Maguire, have never had a fair chance in life. Let us remember that, when we judge them, and not be too hasty to condemn.”
― Horatio Alger Jr., The Complete "Ragged Dick" Series

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“The tyrant is always in danger of losing his hold upon the victim when the latter begins to think.”
― Horatio Alger Jr., Ragged Dick : Complete Series (10 books) - Ragged Dick, Fame and Fortune, Mark the Match Boy, Rough and Ready and many more

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“It is the first fashionable party I ever attended." "Well," said Dick, "I haven't attended many. When I was a boot-black I found it interfered with my business, and so I always declined all the fashionable invitations I got.”
― Horatio Alger Jr., Ragged Dick : Complete Series (10 books) - Ragged Dick, Fame and Fortune, Mark the Match Boy, Rough and Ready and many more

2 likes

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Horatio Alger Jr.’s Followers (98)

Horatio Alger Jr.

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