Horatio Alger, Jr. 1832-1899

He was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1832. His father was an Unitarian minister. His early education was conducted at home. Despite his early deficiencies in a structured education, he showed an interest in writing, and he excelled at Harvard, receiving awards for academic achievement and prizes for his essays.
He graduated in 1852. Then he entered the Harvard Divinity School, but soon after withdrew to take a position in a local newspaper. Then he took on several positions: teacher, principal, private tutor, and writer. During this time, two of Alger's writings were published: Bertha's Christmas Vision (1856), and Nothing To Do (1857), a satirical poem. These were published as were many of his stories and poems in the monthlies and weeklies. Despite his growing prominence as a writer and his income from teaching, he was unable to make a satisfactory living. In 1857 he re-entered in the Harvard Divinity School, he took his degree in 1860. After a tour of Europe he wrote a book for children, Frank's Campaign. During the Civil War he was rejected for army. In 1864 he was ordained and accepted the pulpit of a church in Brewster, Mass., but he was forced to leave in 1866 following allegations of sexual activities with local boys, which he did not deny.
In 1867 he moved to New York, and, with the publication and sensational success of Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Bootblacks he found his lifelong theme. In the more than 100 books that he would write over 30 years, Alger followed the rags-to-riches formula that he had hit upon in his first book, even if none of the subsequent novels attained the acclaim of the first one. In those books, almost alike except for the names of their characters, he preached that by honesty and cheerful perseverance the poor but virtuous lad would have his just reward - though the reward was almost always precipitated by a stroke of good luck. Those stories were to make him famous and contribute the "Alger hero" to the American language.
Despite his success at writing for children, Alger wanted to gain literary fame by writing material for a mature audience. This desire was never fully realized. He did have some limited successes through the publication of a collection of poetry, Grand'ther Baldwin's Thanksgiving (1875) and his novel, The New Schoolma'am (1877). He actually wrote another adult fiction piece entitled Mabel Parker, but he delayed publishment because of a sales slump in the book trade. It was not published until after Alger's death.
When President Garfield died, in 1881, Alger wrote in 14 days a biography for an audience of children. From Canal Boy to President sold very well, encouraging him to write two more biographies for children: From Farm Boy to Senator (D. Webster) (1882) and Abraham Lincoln, the Backwoods Boy (1883).
Until his health failed in 1895, Alger poured out 537 novels and short stories, 94 poems, and 27 articles. In addition, it is known that many of Alger's works were published using pseudonyms. It is likely that many of Alger's stories are lost and the true number may never be known. On July 18, 1899, at the age of 67, Alger passed away at his sister's home in Natick, Mass. His stories continued to be popular until the 1920s, when most publishers stopped issuing them.

links: The Horatio Alger Association The Horatio Alger Society