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Pacific Series
The Young Explorer
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Paperback
First published January 1, 1880
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About the author
Horatio Alger Jr.
445 books97 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 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 13, 2017
First book I read on my new Kindle.
This was a nice quick little read, could almost read it in one sitting.
Felt like a moral story. Liked the character of Ben and enjoyed his friendships with Jake and Florence/Ida.
It wrapped up really quickly, they all travelled to find Dewey, and then it was ended in one paragraph. I wanted to know what came next.
This was a nice quick little read, could almost read it in one sitting.
Felt like a moral story. Liked the character of Ben and enjoyed his friendships with Jake and Florence/Ida.
It wrapped up really quickly, they all travelled to find Dewey, and then it was ended in one paragraph. I wanted to know what came next.
June 16, 2020
This was a really fun adventure novel! Now I want to read more by this author.
August 16, 2021
Not bad for a typical Alger story except that it ends super abruptly! Really unsatisfying.
August 23, 2022
Maybe a little too perfect, but a fun adventure story nonetheless.
January 1, 2017
A mid-period Alger, where he tried to expand his reader base by stretching his universe to include places further away than Central Park. In this novel, Horatio asks himself where possibly would a boy seeking his fortune want to go if not to New York City? The answer apparently was to the gold fields of California. There is nothing in particular that makes this a logical choice for our hero Benjamin. When we meet him he is newly orphaned and is already set upon his trip out west. The opening chapters are dedicated to his turning down work opportunities in his home town, a process that allows him to make mild fun of his uncle's life choices while also forcing him to agree, openly mock the meanness of the local miser to his face, and sneer at the offer of local posh boy who wants him to hire him as a valet.
So from the start we can see that Ben is a real sh*t that Alger wants us to forgive because he has ambition. This was a regular problem of the mid-period Alger novel, because the classic Alger formula was to constantly reaffirm that there is no shame in accepting any kind of honest labor if it offered itself. When Alger set his mind to getting his boys out of the small towns and the squalid streets that served him so well in the Ragged Dick era, he had to have them turn down the exact offers of work that he promised was the surest path to success in his early novels. Without re-imagining the whole Alger formula he couldn't help but create nasty little pieces of work, like our hero Ben. So expect to hate him.
The bulk of the book is a normal Alger workup, where the best strategy for our hero is to keep an honest face while waiting for good things to happen to him. He travels to California at no cost to himself and is handed a pile of expense dollars because a young woman trusts him immediately, and then he attracts small group of decent hardworking allies while moving amidst a cloud of imbecile criminals and foolish bullies that he can easily best.
Ben wins out in the end of course, otherwise what would be the point? and credit to Alger for trying something new.
So from the start we can see that Ben is a real sh*t that Alger wants us to forgive because he has ambition. This was a regular problem of the mid-period Alger novel, because the classic Alger formula was to constantly reaffirm that there is no shame in accepting any kind of honest labor if it offered itself. When Alger set his mind to getting his boys out of the small towns and the squalid streets that served him so well in the Ragged Dick era, he had to have them turn down the exact offers of work that he promised was the surest path to success in his early novels. Without re-imagining the whole Alger formula he couldn't help but create nasty little pieces of work, like our hero Ben. So expect to hate him.
The bulk of the book is a normal Alger workup, where the best strategy for our hero is to keep an honest face while waiting for good things to happen to him. He travels to California at no cost to himself and is handed a pile of expense dollars because a young woman trusts him immediately, and then he attracts small group of decent hardworking allies while moving amidst a cloud of imbecile criminals and foolish bullies that he can easily best.
Ben wins out in the end of course, otherwise what would be the point? and credit to Alger for trying something new.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews