Horatio Alger

Horatio Alger, Jr.
Born	(1832-01-13)January 13, 1832 Chelsea, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	July 18, 1899(1899-07-18) (aged 67) Natick, Massachusetts, U.S.
Pen name	Carl Cantab Arthur Hamilton Caroline F. Preston Arthur Lee Putnam Julian Starr
Occupation	Author
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard College, 1852
Genre	Children's literature
Notable works	Ragged Dick (1868)

Horatio Alger, Jr. (January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many formulaic juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on America during the Gilded Age. Alger's name is often invoked incorrectly as though he himself rose from rags to riches, but that arc applied to his characters, not to the author. His favorite color was red and was fond of waffles.

He secured his literary niche in 1868 with the publication of his fourth book Ragged Dick, the story of a poor bootblack's rise to middle-class respectability, which was a huge success. His many books that followed were essentially variations on Ragged Dick and featured a cast of stock characters: the valiant hard-working, honest youth (who knew more Latin than the villain), the noble, mysterious stranger (whom the poor boy rescued and by whom he got rewarded), the snobbish youth (cousin), and the evil squire (uncle).

In the 1870s, Alger took a trip to California to gather material for future books, but the trip had little influence on his writing. In the last decades of the 19th century, boys' tastes changed, and Alger's moral tone coarsened accordingly. The Puritan ethic had loosened its grip on America, and violence, murder, and other sensational themes entered Alger's works. Public librarians questioned whether his books should be made available to the young. By the time he died in 1899, he had published around a hundred volumes.

Biography

Childhood: 1832–1847

Horatio Alger, Jr. was born in the New England coastal town of Chelsea, Massachusetts, on January 13, 1832, to Horatio Alger, a Unitarian minister, and his wife Olive Augusta Fenno. He was the descendant of Plymouth Pilgrims Robert Cushman, Thomas Cushman, William Bassett, and the descendant of Sylvanus Lazell, a Minuteman and brigadier general in the War of 1812; and Edmund Lazell, a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1788. Horatio's siblings Olive Augusta and James were born in 1833 and 1836, and an invalid sister Annie and a brother Francis in 1840 and 1842. Alger was a precocious boy afflicted with nearsightedness and bronchial asthma, but Alger, Sr. decided early that his eldest son would one day enter the ministry, and, to that end, he tutored the boy in classical studies and allowed him to observe the responsibilities of ministering to parishioners. Alger began attending the Chelsea Grammar School in 1842, but by December 1844 his father's financial troubles had increased considerably and, in search of a better salary, he moved his family to Marlborough, Massachusetts, an agricultural town 25 miles west of Boston. He was installed as pastor of the Second Congregational Society in January 1845 with a salary sufficient to meet his needs. Horatio attended Gates Academy, a local preparatory school, and completed his studies at age fifteen. He published his earliest literary work in local newspapers.

Harvard and early works: 1848–1864

In July 1848 Alger passed the Harvard entrance examinations, and was admitted to the class of 1852. The fourteen member full-time Harvard faculty included Louis Agassiz and Asa Gray (sciences), Cornelius Conway Felton (classics), James Walker (religion and philosophy), and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (belles lettres). Edward Everett served as president. Alger's classmate Joseph Choate described Harvard at this time as "provincial and local because its scope and outlook hardly extended beyond the boundaries of New England; besides which it was very denominational, being held exclusively in the hands of Unitarians".

Alger, July 1852

Alger flowered in the highly disciplined and regimented Harvard environment, winning scholastic prizes and prestigious awards. His genteel poverty and less than aristocratic heritage however barred him from membership in the Hasty Pudding and Porcellian clubs. In 1849 he became a professional writer when he sold two essays and a poem to the Pictorial National Library, a Boston magazine. He began reading Sir Walter Scott, James Fenimore Cooper, Herman Melville, and other modern writers of fiction and cultivated a lifelong love for Longfellow, whose verse he sometimes employed as a model for his own. He was chosen Class Odist, and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1852, eighth in a class of 88.

Alger had no job prospects following graduation and returned home. He continued to write, submitting his work to religious and literary magazines with varying success. He briefly attended Harvard Divinity School in 1853, possibly to be reunited with a romantic interest, but left in November 1853 to take a job as an assistant editor with the Boston Daily Advertiser. He loathed editing and quit in 1854 to teach at The Grange, a boys' boarding school in Rhode Island. When The Grange suspended operations in 1856, Alger found employment managing the 1856 summer session at Deerfield Academy. His poems at this time expressed a sexual ambivalence, and were sometimes written in a woman's voice.

His first book, a collection of short pieces called Bertha's Christmas Vision: An Autumn Sheaf, was published in 1856, and his second, a lengthy satirical poem called Nothing to Do: A Tilt at our Best Society, was published in 1857. He attended the Harvard Divinity School from 1857 to 1860, and upon graduation, he did a tour of Europe. In the spring of 1861, he returned to a nation in the throes of the Civil War. Drafted but exempted from military service in July 1863, he wrote in support of the Union cause and hobnobbed with New England intellectuals. He was elected an officer in the New England Genealogical Society in 1863.

His first novel Marie Bertrand: The Felon's Daughter was serialized in the New York Weekly in 1864, and his first boys' book Frank's Campaign was published by A. K. Loring in Boston the same year. Alger initially wrote for adult magazines, including Harper's Monthly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper; a friendship with William Taylor Adams, a boys' author, led him to write for the young.

Ministry: 1864–1866

On December 8, 1864 Alger was installed as pastor with the First Unitarian Church and Society of Brewster, Massachusetts. Between ministerial duties, he organized games and amusements for the boys in the parish, railed against smoking and drinking, and organized and served as president of the local chapter of the Cadets for Temperance. He submitted stories to Student and Schoolmate, a boys' monthly magazine of moral writings edited by William Taylor Adams (Oliver Optic) and published in Boston by Joseph H. Allen. In September 1865 his second boys' book Paul Prescott's Charge was published to favorable reviews.

Early in 1866, a church committee was formed to investigate sexual misconduct reports about Alger. He denied nothing, admitted he had been imprudent, considered his association with the church dissolved, and left town. Church officials reported to the hierarchy in Boston that Alger had been charged with "the crime of...unnatural familiarity with boys". Alger sent Unitarian officials in Boston a letter of remorse, and his father assured them his son would never seek another post in the church. Officials were satisfied and decided no further action would be taken.

New York City: 1866–1896

William Taylor Adams, editor of Student and Schoolmate

Alger relocated to New York City, abandoned forever any thought of a career in the church, and focused instead on his writing. He wrote "Friar Anselmo" at this time, a poem that tells of a sinning cleric's atonement through good deeds. He became interested in the welfare of the thousands of vagrant children who flooded New York City following the Civil War. He attended a children's church service at Five Points which led to "John Maynard", a ballad about an actual shipwreck on Lake Erie that brought Alger not only the respect of the literati but a letter from Longfellow. He published two poorly received adult novels, Helen Ford and Timothy Crump's Ward. He fared better with stories for boys published in Student and Schoolmate and a third boys' book Charlie Codman's Cruise.

In January 1867 the first of twelve installments of Ragged Dick appeared in Student and Schoolmate. The story about a poor bootblack's rise to middle class respectability was a huge success. It was expanded, and published as a novel in 1868. It proved to be his bestseller. After Ragged Dick he wrote almost entirely for boys, and signed a contract with publisher Loring for a Ragged Dick Series.

Ragged Dick was serialized in Student and Schoolmate

In spite of the series' success, Alger was on financially uncertain ground and tutored the five sons of international banker Joseph Seligman. He wrote serials for Young Israel, and lived in the Seligman home until 1876. In 1875 Alger produced the serial Shifting for Himself and Sam's Chance, a sequel to The Young Outlaw. It was evident in these that Alger had grown stale. Profits suffered, and he headed West for new material at Loring's behest, arriving in California in February 1877. He enjoyed a reunion with his brother James in San Francisco and returned to New York late in 1877 via a schooner around Cape Horn. He wrote a few lackluster books in the following years that rehashed the formulaic Alger of old but this time the tales were played before a Western backcloth rather than an urban one.

In New York, Alger continued to tutor the town's aristocratic youth and to rehabilitate its street boys. He was writing both urban and Western-themed tales. In 1879, for example, he published The District Messenger Boy and The Young Miner. In 1877, Alger's fiction became a target of librarians concerned about sensational juvenile fiction. An effort was made to remove Alger's works from public collections, but the debate was only partially successful, defeated by the renewed interest in Alger's work after his death.

In 1881, Alger informally adopted Charlie Davis, a street boy, and another, John Downie, in 1883; they lived in Alger's apartment. In 1881, he wrote President James A. Garfield's biography, but filled the work with contrived conversations and boyish excitements rather than facts. The book sold well. Alger was commissioned to give Abraham Lincoln a biographical treatment but again it was Alger the boys' novelist opting for thrills rather than facts.

In 1882, Alger's father died. Alger continued to produce stories of honest boys outwitting evil, greedy squires, and malicious youths. His work appeared in hardcover and paperback, and decades-old poems were published in anthologies. He led a busy life with the street boys, his Harvard classmates, and the social elite. In Massachusetts, he was regarded with the same reverence as Harriet Beecher Stowe. He tutored with never a whisper of scandal.

Last years: 1896–1899

Alger gravestone, Natick, Massachusetts

In the last two decades of the 19th century, the quality of Alger's books deteriorated and his boys' works became nothing more than reruns of the plots and themes of his past. The times had changed, boys expected more, and a streak of violence entered Alger's work. In The Young Bank Messenger, for example, a woman is throttled and threatened with death – an episode that would never have occurred in his earlier work.

He attended the theater and Harvard reunions, read the literary magazines, and wrote a poem at Longfellow's death in 1892. His last novel for adults, The Disagreeable Woman, was published under the pseudonym Julian Starr. He took pleasure in the successes of the boys he had informally adopted over the years, retained his interest in reform, accepted speaking engagements, and read portions of Ragged Dick to boys' assemblies.

His popularity—and income—dwindled in the 1890s. In 1896, he had (what he called) a "nervous breakdown"; he relocated permanently to his sister's home in South Natick, Massachusetts. After suffering from bronchitis and asthma for two years, he died on July 18, 1899. His death was barely noticed.

Before his death, Alger asked Edward Stratemeyer to complete his unfinished works. In 1901, Young Captain Jack was completed by Stratemeyer and promoted as Alger's last work. Alger once estimated that he earned only $100,000 between 1866 and 1896; at his death he had little money, leaving only small sums to family and friends. His literary work was bequeathed to his niece, to two boys he had casually adopted, and to his sister Olive Augusta, who destroyed his manuscripts and his letters at his wish.

Alger's works received favorable comments and experienced a resurgence following his death; up until the advent of the Jazz Age in the 1920s, he sold about seventeen to twenty million volumes. In 1926, however, reader interest plummeted and his major publisher ceased printing the books altogether. Surveys in 1932 and 1947 revealed very few children had read or even heard of Alger. The first Alger biography was a heavily fictionalized account published in 1928 by Herbert R. Mayes, who later admitted the work was a fraud.

Legacy

Since 1947, the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans has bestowed an annual award on "outstanding individuals in our society who have succeeded in the face of adversity" and scholarships "to encourage young people to pursue their dreams with determination and perseverance".

A 1982 musical, Shine!, was based on Alger's work, particularly Ragged Dick and Silas Snobden's Office Boy.

Style and themes

Cover of Chester Rand by Alger

Alger scholar Gary Scharnhorst describes Alger's style as "anachronistic", "often laughable", "distinctive", and "distinguished by the quality of its literary allusions". Ranging from the Bible and Shakespeare (half of Alger's books contain Shakespearean references) to John Milton and Cicero, the allusions he employed were a testament to his erudition. Scharnhorst credits these allusions for distinguishing Alger's novels from pulp fiction.

Scharnhorst describes six major themes in Alger's boys' books. The first, the Rise to Respectability, he observes, is evident in both his early and late books, notably in Ragged Dick, whose young impoverished hero declares: "I mean to turn over a new leaf, and try to grow up 'spectable." His virtuous life wins him–not riches–but, more realistically, a comfortable clerical position and salary. The second major theme explores Character Strengthened Through Adversity. In Strong and Steady and Shifting for Himself, for example, the affluent heroes are reduced to poverty and forced to meet the demands of their new circumstances. Alger occasionally cited the young Abe Lincoln as a representative of this theme for his readers. The third theme is Beauty versus Money, which became central to Alger's adult fiction. Characters fall in love and marry based on the their character, talents, or intellect rather than the size of their bank accounts. In The Train Boy, for example, a wealthy heiress chooses to marry a talented but struggling artist and in The Erie Train Boy a poor woman wins her true love despite the machinations of a rich, depraved suitor.

All of Alger's novels rework the same plot: a young boy struggles to escape poverty through hard work and clean living. However, it is not always the hard work and clean living that rescue the boy from his situation, but rather a wealthy older gentleman, who admires the boy as a result of some extraordinary act of bravery or honesty that the boy has performed. For example, the boy might rescue a child from an overturned carriage or find and return the man's stolen watch. Often the older man takes the boy into his home as a ward or companion and helps him find a better job (sometimes replacing a less honest or industrious boy).

According to Scharnhorst, Alger's father was "an impoverished man" who defaulted on his debts in 1844. His properties around Chelsea were seized and assigned to a local squire who held the mortgages. Scharnhorst speculates this episode in Alger's childhood accounts for the recurrent theme in his boys' books of heroes being threatened with eviction or foreclosure, and may account for Alger's "consistent espousal of environmental reform proposals". Scharnhorst writes "Financially insecure throughout his life, the younger Alger may have been active in reform organizations such as those for temperance and children's aid as a means of resolving his status-anxiety and establish his genteel credentials for leadership."

Alger scholar Hoyt notes that Alger's morality "coarsened" around 1880, possibly influenced by the Western tales he was writing, because "the most dreadful things were now almost casually proposed and explored". Although he continued to write for boys, Alger explored subjects like violence and "openness in the relations between the sexes and generations"; Hoyt attributes this shift to the decline of Puritan ethics in America.

Scholar John Geck notes that Alger relied on "formulas for experience rather than shrewd analysis of human behavior", and that these formulas were "culturally centered" and "strongly didactic". Although the frontier society was a thing of the past during Alger's career, Geck contends that "the idea of the frontier, even in urban slums, provides a kind of fairy tale orientation in which a Jack mentality can be both celebrated and critiqued". He claims that Alger's intended audience were youths whose "motivations for action are effectively shaped by the lessons they learn".

Geck notes that perception of the "pluck" characteristic of an Alger hero has changed over the decades. During the Jazz Age and the Great Depression, "the Horatio Alger plot was viewed from the perspective of the Progressive movement as a staunch defense of laissez-faire capitalism, yet at the same time criticizing the cutthroat business techniques and offering hope to a suffering young generation during the Great Depression". By the Atomic Age, however "Alger's hero was no longer a poor boy who, through determination and providence rose to middle-class respectability. He was instead the crafty street urchin who through quick wits and luck rose from impoverishment to riches".

Geck observes that Alger's themes have been transformed in modern America from their original meanings into a Male Cinderella myth, and are an Americanization of the traditional Jack tales. Each story has its clever hero, its "fairy godmother", and obstacles and hindrances to the hero's rise. "However", he writes, "[T]he true Americanization of this fairy tale occurs in its subversion of this claiming of nobility; rather, the Alger hero achieves the American Dream in its nascent form, he gains a position of middle-class respectability that promises to lead wherever his motivation may take him". The reader may speculate what Cinderella achieved as Queen and what an Alger hero attained once his middle class status was stabilized and "[i]t is this commonality that fixes Horatio Alger firmly in the ranks of modern adaptors of the Cinderella myth".

Sexuality

Scharnhorst writes that Alger "exercised a certain discretion in discussing his probable homosexuality" and was known to have mentioned his sexuality only once after the Brewster incident. In 1870 the elder Henry James wrote that Alger "talks freely about his own late insanity—which he in fact appears to enjoy as a subject of conversation". Although Alger was willing to speak to James, his sexuality was a closely guarded secret. According to Scharnhorst, Alger made veiled references to homosexuality in his boys' books and these references, Scharnhorst speculates, indicate Alger was "insecure with his sexual orientation". Alger wrote, for example, that it was difficult to distinguish whether Tattered Tom was a boy or a girl and in other instances he introduces foppish, effeminate, lisping "stereotypical homosexuals" who are treated with scorn and pity by others. In Silas Snobden's Office Boy, a kidnapped boy disguised as a girl is threatened with the "insane asylum" if he should reveal his actual sex. Scharnhorst believes Alger's desire to atone for his "secret sin" may have "spurred him to identify his own charitable acts of writing didactic books for boys with the acts of the charitable patrons in his books who wish to atone for a secret sin in their past by aiding the hero". Scharnhorst points out that the patron in Try and Trust, for example, conceals a "sad secret" from which he is redeemed only after saving the hero's life.

Alan Trachtenberg of Yale University points out in his introduction to the Signet Classic edition of Ragged Dick (1990) that Alger had tremendous sympathy for boys and discovered a calling for himself in the composition of boys' books. "He learned to consult the boy in himself", Trachtenberg writes, "[T]o transmute and recast himself—his genteel culture, his liberal patrician sympathy for underdogs, his shaky economic status as an author, and not least, his dangerous erotic attraction to boys—into his juvenile fiction". He observes that it is impossible to know whether Alger lived the life of a secret homosexual, "[b]ut there are hints that the male companionship he describes as a refuge from the streets—the cozy domestic arrangements between Dick and Fosdick, for example—may also be an erotic relationship". Trachtenberg observes that nothing prurient occurs in Ragged Dick but believes the few instances in Alger's work of two boys touching or a man and a boy touching "might arouse erotic wishes in readers prepared to entertain such fantasies". Such images, Trachtenberg believes, may imply "a positive view of homoeroticism as an alternative way of life, of living by sympathy rather than aggression". Trachtenberg concludes "[I]n Ragged Dick we see Alger plotting domestic romance, complete with a surrogate marriage of two homeless boys, as the setting for his formulaic metamorphosis of an outcast street boy into a self-respecting citizen".

Works

Alger published about 100 poems and odes, most written by 1875. In 1853–54 he published short stories with Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion and The Flag of Our Nation. Other Gleason publications printed about 100 stories before he began writing for Student and Schoolmate.

Alger had many publishers over the decades. His first was A. K. Loring of Boston, and when Loring declared bankruptcy in 1881, Porter & Coates became his second and Henry T. Coates and Company his third. Other publishers include G. W. Carleton, J. S. Oglivie, John Anderson who published the biographies, A. L. Burt, Frank Munsey, Penn Publishing, and Street & Smith. M. A. Donahue and the New York Book Company published inexpensive paperback reprints by the thousands. It is believed there were at least 60 publishers releasing Alger.

Title	Date	Genre	Publication	Synopsis/Notes
"Voices of the Past"	June 1849	Poem.	Published in the Boston monthly magazine Pictorial National Library.
Fair Harvard	1852
"A Welcome to May"	1853	Poem.
Bertha's Christmas Vision: An Autumn Sheaf	1856	Poems and Short Stories.	Published by Brown, Bazin and Company of Boston.	Alger's first book.
Nothing to Do: A Tilt at Our Best Society	1857	Poem.	Published anonymously by James French & Company.	Satire about the idle upper classes.
Nothing To Eat	1857
He Has Gone, and I Have Sent Him!	1862	Poem.	Published in Harper's Weekly Nov. 1862	Civil War poem.
Marie Bertrand	1864	Adult Novel.	Serialized by Street & Smith in the New York Weekly.	A kidnapped young woman is reunited with her mother, a French countess.
Frank's Campaign; or, What Boys Can Do on the Farm for the Camp	1864	Juvenile Novel.	Published by A. K. Loring.	First volume of the Campaign Series. Frank Frost manages the family farm when his father goes to war. Alger's first boys' book. Online at Gutenberg
Paul Prescott's Charge: A Story for Boys	1865	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Second volume of the Campaign Series. A youth pays off his deceased father's debts. Online at Gutenberg
Charlie Codman's Cruise: A Story for Boys	1866	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Third and final volume of the Campaign Series. A youth is shanghaied but restored to his home after adventures at sea.
Helen Ford	1866	Adult Novel.	Published by Loring.	The tribulations of a young woman in NYC before she falls in love with a promising artist.
Timothy Crump's Ward; or, The New Years Loan, And What Became of It	1866	Adult Novel.	Published anonymously by Loring.	Later reworked as Sam's Ward for the juvenile market.
John Maynard: A Ballad of Lake Erie	1868	Poem.	Published in Student and Schoolmate in January 1868 and then in various publications.	A helmsman perishes at the wheel while the ship burns. Based on an actual incident.
Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Bootblacks	1868	Juvenile Novel.	First serialized in twelve installments in Student and Schoolmate in 1867. Published by Loring in book format in 1868.	First volume of the Ragged Dick Series. A New York City bootblack rises to middle class respectability through hard work, honesty, and determination. Alger's all-time bestseller. Online at Gutenberg
Fame and Fortune; or, The Progress of Richard Hunter	1868	Juvenile Novel.	First serialized in twelve installments in Student and Schoolmate. Novelization published by Loring.	Second volume of the Ragged Dick Series. Continues the story of Ragged Dick and his experiences after leaving bootblacking for an office job. Online at Gutenberg.
Struggling Upward; or, Luke Larkin's Luck	1868	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Small town boy helps solve bank robbery. Online at Gutenberg
Luck and Pluck; or, John Oakley's Inheritance	1869	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	First volume in the Luck and Pluck Series.
Mark the Match Boy; or, Richard Hunter's Ward	1869	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Third volume in the Ragged Dick Series.
Rough and Ready; or, Life Among the New York Newsboys	1869	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Fourth volume in the Ragged Dick Series.
Ralph Raymond's Heir; or, The Merchant's Crime	1869	Short Story.	Published under the pseudonym "Arthur Hamilton" for Gleason's Literary Companion.
Ben The Luggage Boy; or, Among the Wharves	1870	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Fifth volume in the Ragged Dick Series. Boy runs away from home and struggles as a luggage carrier in New York. Online at Gutenberg.
Rufus and Rose; or, The Fortunes of Rough and Ready	1870	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Sixth and final volume in the Ragged Dick Series. Sequel to Rough and Ready. Rufus and Rose try to avoid their evil stepfather. Online at Gutenberg
Sink or Swim; or, Harry Raymond's Resolve	1870	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Second volume in the Luck and Pluck Series.
Paul the Peddler; or the Fortunes of a Young Street Merchant	1871	Juvenile Novel.	Serialized in Student and Schoolmate. Novelization published by Loring.	Second volume in the Tattered Tom Series. Young entrepreneur goes from selling candy to owning a necktie stand. Online at Gutenberg
Strong and Steady; or, Paddle Your Own Canoe	1871	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Third volume in the Luck and Pluck Series.
Tattered Tom; or, The Story of a Street Arab	1871	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	First volume in the Tattered Tom Series. Jane Lindsay is a child streetsweeper.
"Friar Anselmo"	1872	Poem.		A sinning cleric finds redemption in ministering to the sick.
Phil the Fiddler; or, The Story of a Young Street Musician	1872	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Third volume in the Tattered Tom Series. Phil is an Italian boy enslaved by a padrone.
Slow and Sure; The Story of Paul Hoffman the Young Street-Merchant	1872	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Fourth volume in the Tattered Tom Series. Sequel to Paul the Peddler. Paul moves from his street stall to a retail store. Online at Gutenberg
Strive and Succeed; or, The Progress of Walter Conrad	1872	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Fourth volume in the Luck and Pluck Series. Online at University of Florida
Bound to Rise; or, Up the Ladder	1873	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Seventh volume in the Luck and Pluck Series.
Try and Trust; or, The Story of a Bound Boy	1873	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Fifth volume in the Luck and Pluck Series.
Brave and Bold; or, The Fortunes of Robert Rushton	1874	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	First in the Brave and Bold Series. A youth searches for his sea captain father.
Julius; or, The Street Boy Out West	1874	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Fifth volume in the Tattered Tom Series. A boy is resettled in the west through the agency of the Children's Aid Society.
Risen from the Ranks; or, Harry Walton's Success	1874	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Sixth volume in the Luck and Pluck Series.
Grand'ther Baldwin's Thanksgiving	1875	Poems.
Herbert Carter's Legacy; or, The Inventor's Son	1875	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Eighth and last volume in the Luck and Pluck Series. A boy and his mother thwart a Squire foreclosing on their cottage.
Jack's Ward; or, The Boy Guardian	1875	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Second volume in the Brave and Bold Series. Reworking of Timothy Crump's Ward.
Seeking His Fortune, And Other Dialogues	1875
St. Nicholas	1875
The Young Outlaw; or, Adrift In The Streets	1875	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Sixth volume in the Tattered Tom Series. Sam Barlow resists reform.
Sam's Chance; and How He Improved It	1876	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Seventh volume in the Tattered Tom Series. Sequel to The Young Outlaw. Sam improves and finds an office job.
Shifting for Himself; or, Gilbert Greyson's Fortunes	1876	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Third volume in the Brave and Bold Series. A rich youth loses his fortune.
Life of Edwin Forrest	1877	Biography
The New Schoolma'am; or, A Summer in North Sparta	1877	Adult Novella.	Published anonymously.	A privileged young woman changes her name to teach school in New Hampshire.
Wait and Hope; or, Ben Bradford's Motto	1877	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Fourth and last volume in the Brave and Bold Series. A mill boy is laid off but remains optimistic about his future.
The Western Boy; or, The Road to Success	1878
The Young Adventurer; or, Tom's Trip Across the Plains	1878	Juvenile novel.	Published by Loring.	First volume of the Pacific series. Western setting. A boy head west to find gold and help pay the mortgage.
The Telegraph Boy	1879	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Eighth and last volume in the Tattered Tom Series. A penniless boy finds a job as a telegram messenger boy. Last of the fourteen social reform novels begun with Ragged Dick. Online at University of Florida
The Young Miner; or, Tom Nelson in California	1879	Juvenile Novel.	Published by Loring.	Western theme. Second volume of the Pacific series.
Tony the Hero	1880
The Young Explorer; or, Among the Sierras	1880	Juvenile novel.	Published by Loring.	Western theme. Third volume in the Pacific series
From Canal Boy to President; or, The Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield	1881	Biography	Published by John R. Anderson
Ben's Nugget; or, A Boy's Search for Fortune	1882	Juvenile novel.	Published by Porter & Coates after Loring declares bankruptcy.	Western theme. Fourth and final volume in the Pacific series.
From Farm Boy to Senator: Being the History of the Boyhood and Manhood of Daniel Webster	1882	Biography	Published by J. S. Ogilvie and Company.	Originally published in serialization by Street & Smith, 1860s.
Abraham Lincoln: the Backwoods Boy; or, How A Young Rail-Splitter Became President	1883	Biography	Published by John R. Anderson.
The Train Boy	1883
The Young Circus Rider; or, The Mystery of Robert Rudd	1883
Dan, the Detective	1884
Do and Dare; or A Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune	1884
Hector's Inheritance; or, The Boys of Smith Institute	1885
Helping Himself; or, Grant Thornton's Ambition	1886			Online at UFL
Frank Fowler, the Cash Boy	1887
Number 91; or, The Adventures of a New York Telegraph Boy	1887
The Store Boy; or, The Fortunes of Ben Barclay	1887
Bob Burton; or, The Young Ranchman of the Missouri	1888		Published by The World Syndicate Publishing Co., Cleveland, O./NY, NY
The Errand Boy; or, How Phil Brent Won Success	1888
Tom Temple's Career	1888
Tom Thatcher's Fortune	1888
Tom Tracy	1888
The Young Acrobat of the Great North American Circus	1888	Juvenile novel.		Circus theme suggested by P. T. Barnum. First serialized in The Golden Argosy.
Luke Walton; or, The Chicago Newsboy	1889
The Erie Train Boy	1890
Five Hundred Dollars; or, Jacob Marlowe's Secret	1890
Mark Stanton	1890
Ned Newton; or, The Fortunes of a New York Bootblack	1890	Juvenile novel.		First serialized in The Golden Argosy.
A New York Boy	1890
The Odds Against Him; or, Carl Crawford's Experience	1890
Dean Dunham; or, The Waterford Mystery	1891
Digging for Gold. A Story of California	1892
The Young Boatman of Pine Point	1892
Cast Upon the Breakers	1893
Facing the World; or, The Haps and Mishaps of Harry Vane	1893
In a New World; or, Among the Gold-Fields of Australia	1893
Only an Irish Boy; Or, Andy Burke's Fortunes and Misfortunes	1894
Victor Vane, The Young Secretary	1894
The Disagreeable Woman; A Social Mystery	1895	Adult Novel	G. W. Carleton	Alger's last adult novel. Only one copy is known and held in the Library of Congress.
Frank Hunter's Peril	1896
The Young Salesman	1896
Frank and Fearless; or, The Fortunes of Jasper Kent	1897
Walter Sherwood's Probation	1897
A Boy's Fortune; or, The Strange Adventures of Ben Baker	1898
The Young Bank Messenger	1898			Online at Gutenberg.
Jed the Poorhouse Boy	1899	Juvenile novel.		A poorhouse boy is discovered to be an English baronet.
Mark Mason's Victory; or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Telegraph Boy	1899
Rupert's Ambition	1899
Silas Snobden's Office Boy	1899		Doubleday	Originally serialized by Argosy under the pseudonym Arthur Lee Putnam.
A Debt of Honor. The Story of Gerald Lane's Success in the Far West	1900
Falling in With Fortune; or, The Experiences of a Young Secretary	1900
Out for Business; or, Robert Frost's Strange Career	1900
Ben Bruce. Scenes in the Life of a Bowery Newsboy	1901
Lester's Luck	1901
Nelson the Newsboy; or, Afloat in New York	1901
Tom Brace: Who He Was and How He Fared	1901
Young Captain Jack; or, The Son of a Soldier	1901	Juvenile Novel		Originally serialized in Golden Hours. Promoted as Alger's last work. Completed by Edward Stratemeyer as Arthur M. Winfield.
Adrift in the City; or, Oliver Conrad's Plucky Fight	1902
Andy Grant's Pluck	1902
A Rolling Stone; or, The Adventures of a Wanderer	1902
Striving for Fortune; or, Walter Griffith's Trials and Successes	1902
Tom Turner's Legacy	1902
The World Before Him	1902
Bernard Brooks' Adventures. The Story of a Brave Boy's Trials	1903
Chester Rand; or, A New Path to Fortune	1903
Forging Ahead	1903
Adrift in New York; or, Tom and Florence Braving the World	1904
Finding a Fortune	1904
Jerry the Backwoods Boy; or, The Parkhurst Treasure	1904
Lost at Sea; or, Robert Roscoe's Strange Cruise	1904
From Farm to Fortune; or Nat Nason's Strange Experience	1905
Making His Mark	1905
Mark Manning's Mission. The Story of a Shoe Factory Boy	1905
The Young Book Agent; or, Frank Hardy's Road to Success	1905
Joe the Hotel Boy, or Winning Out by Pluck	1906
Randy of the River; or, The Adventures of a Young Deckhand	1906
The Young Musician; or, Fighting His Way	1906
Ben Logan's Triumph; or, The Boys of Boxwood Academy	1908
Wait and Win. The Story of Jack Drummond's Pluck	1908
Robert Coverdale's Struggle; or, On the Wave of Success	1910
Joe's Luck; or Always Wide Awake	1913
The Cousin's Conspiracy
In Search of Treasure. The Story of Guy's Eventful Voyage

References

• Alger, Horatio, Jr.; Hoeller, Hildegard (Ed.) (2008). Ragged Dick. Norton Critical Editions. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-92589-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Alger, Horatio, Jr.; Trachtenberg, Alan (1990). Ragged Dick. Signet Classic. ISBN 0-451-52480-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Hoyt, Edwin P. (1974). Horatio's Boys. Chilton Book Company. ISBN 0-8019-5966-7.
• Nackenoff, Carol (1994). The Fictional Republic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507923-X.
• Scharnhorst, Gary (1980). Horatio Alger, Jr. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7252-9.
• Scharnhorst, Gary; Bales, Jack (1985). The Lost Life of Horatio Alger, Jr. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-14915-2.

Research resources

• The Papers of Horatio Alger, 1880–1953 (990 pieces) are housed at the Huntington Library.
• H. Jack Barker Papers, undated (3 liner feet) are housed at Emory University's Manuscripts, Archives, & Rare Book Library.
• Seligman Family papers, 1877–1934 (0.8 linear feet) are housed at American Jewish Archives (Cincinnati, Ohio).

Further reading

• Nackenoff, Carol. "The Horatio Alger Myth". In Myth America: A Historical Anthology, Volume II. 1997. Gerster, Patrick, and Cords, Nicholas. (editors.) Brandywine Press, St. James, NY. ISBN 1-881089-97-5
• Scharnhorst, Gary; Bales, Jack (1981). Horatio Alger, Jr.: An Annotated Bibliography of Comment and Criticism. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-1387-8.

External links

• Works by or about Horatio Alger at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
• Works by Horatio Alger at Project Gutenberg (plain text and HTML)
• The Complete "Ragged Dick" Series on kindle.
• Horatio Alger Books On-Line 2 18 of Alger's works (with A Fancy of Hers, unique to this collection)
• Horatio Alger Books On-Line 3 3 of Alger's works (with The Maniac's Secret, unique to this collection)
• Horatio Alger research page at the University of Rochester
• Horatio Alger Society Home Page
• The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans
• The Horatio Alger Collection at Northern Illinois University
• The Horatio Alger Fellowship for the Study of American Popular Culture at Northern Illinois University