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.
Series
Books
The Errand Boy; Or, How Phil Brent Won Success
1888
The Cash Boy
1875
Walter Sherwood's Probation
1898
Tom the bootblack
1878
The Telegraph Boy
1879
In a New World; or, Among the Goldfields of Australia
1886
From Farm to Fortune
2005
Mark the Match Boy
1869
Risen From the Ranks
1874
Wait and Hope
1877
Bound to Rise
1873
The Store Boy
1887
In Search of Treasure
1894
The Erie Train Boy
1890
Fame and Fortune
1868
Andy Grant's Pluck
1895
Helping Himself
1886
Sam's Chance and How He Improved It
1876
Joe the Hotel Boy
1906
Chester Rand; or, The New Path to Fortune
1903
The Complete "Ragged Dick" Series
2011
Ragged Dick & Mark, the Match Boy
1869
Young Captain Jack
1901
Jed, the poorhouse boy, or, Alone in New York
1976
Do and Dare
1884
From Canal Boy to President Or the Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield
1881
Ben, the Luggage Boy
1870
Phil, the fiddler;
1872
Hector's inheritance, or, The Boys of Smith Institute
1885
Strive and Succeed, Or, the Progress of Walter Conrad
1872
Sink or Swim
Or Harry Raymond's Resolve
1870
Luke Walton
1889
Rufus and Rose
1870
Paul Prescott's Charge
1865
Ragged Dick
1868
THE YOUNG SALESMAN
2005
On His Own
1893
Try and Trust
1873
Robert Coverdale's Struggle
1881
The Horatio Alger Treasury
2010
Herbert Carter's Legacy
1875
Only an Irish Boy
1894
Struggling Upward, Or, Luke Larkin's Luck
1868
50 Masterpieces you have to read before you die Vol
4
2024
The Young Musician; Or, Fighting His Way
2004
Frank and Fearless
1897
Facing the World
1893
Tattered Tom
Or, the Story of a Street Arab
1871
Paul the Peddler
1871
Luck and Pluck, Or, John Oakley's Inheritance
2005
Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward
1868
The Tin Box, and What It Contained
1882
Frank's Campaign
1864
The Young Miner; Or,
1879
Joe's Luck
1887
Five Hundred Dollars
1890
Rough and Ready
1869
Timothy Crump's Ward
1866
Jack's Ward
1875
The Young Explorer
1880
Andy Gordon
1881
Randy of the River
The Adventures of a Young Deckhand
1906
Mark Mason's Victory
1899
The Young Acrobat of the Great North American Circus
1887
Julius the Street Boy
Or Out West
1874
A Cousin's Conspiracy
1896
Making His Way
1910
Ben's Nugget; or, A Boy's Search For Fortune
1882
Driven From Home
2001
Strong and Steady, Or, Paddle Your Own Canoe
1871
Slow and Sure, Or, from the Street to the Shop
1872
Brave and Bold
1874
The Young Outlaw; or, Adrift in the Streets
1875
Adrift in New York
1902
Charlie Codman's Cruise
1866
Dan, the Newsboy
1893
