Making His Way: Or, Frank Courtney's Struggle Upward

by Horatio Alger Jr.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

292 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1910

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

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another rags to riches story, but this one is riches to rags and back to riches again. A great read from Horatio Alger. Although he wrote dozens of these books, each one is compelling and unique.

[Steven Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alger is not a good writer. His dialogue is so stiff as to be unbelievable, even for 1935 when the book was published. His plots are simplistic and melodramatic. His characters have nearly zero depth. And yet, for whatever reason, I enjoyed every minute of this rather silly story. The fascination of a glimpse into a past era, perhaps?

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Alger novel as a boy, Making His Way had a profound impact on me. The story is absorbing and well-managed, and Frank Courtney makes a good but still believable role-model. Episodes such as his stint as a tea salesman are sociologically fascinating. The homoerotic friendship angle common in Alger’s work is not downplayed at all.

One of several misconceptions about Alger that need to be put to rest is that the books are sappy. Far from it. Alger’s boy heroes have to learn to navigate a fundamentally dishonest world; they encounter roguery constantly, and they get wise to it.