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Joe's Luck
An orphan, Joe leaves New York to try his luck in California. He works hard in San Francisco and tries mining on the Yuba River. In Joe?s Luck, Joe had Alger?s essential virtues for success: bravery, generosity, kindness and perseverance.
124 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1887
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About the author
Horatio Alger Jr.
447 books96 followersHoratio 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.
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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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 16, 2009
How funny I should be the first to comment on this book... I actually found this book at my parents house when I was 12 or so. It was without binding or cover and it looked every second of its hundred years old. When my dad saw me looking at it, and he being an avid reader like myself, recommended it and said it had a fabulous moral--and it did! It depicts the American dream of through hard work, anyone can determine how well they do in life, in both cases of spawning positive relationships and the main theme of this book, through getting bloated bank accounts.
June 7, 2022
What a candy book. Can a moral be simplistic and simply true at the same time?
Neat categories of right and wrong (quite like Charlie Chaplin plots, to be fair, so it could just be indicative of the time period/ prevailing mindsets).
Reminds me of Martin Eden (no wonder; though that was more deeply engaging for me), Oliver Twist? (though it's been too long since I read that to be sure), and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (which although it has similar plot progression, twists right and wrong every which way, unlike here).
Neat categories of right and wrong (quite like Charlie Chaplin plots, to be fair, so it could just be indicative of the time period/ prevailing mindsets).
Reminds me of Martin Eden (no wonder; though that was more deeply engaging for me), Oliver Twist? (though it's been too long since I read that to be sure), and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (which although it has similar plot progression, twists right and wrong every which way, unlike here).
June 6, 2022
Horatio Alger wrote friendly feel-good books with nice manners. He wasn't a brilliant author, but I liked reading his books as a kid.
Very old-fashioned and pleasant.
Very old-fashioned and pleasant.
March 18, 2023
This book was great. I highly recommend any book by Horatio Alger. I can't wait to read the rest of his books. This is the 2nd of his books that I have read and I decided that after the 1st one.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews