Horatio Alger Jr. (; January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was an American author who wrote young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to middle-class security and comfort through good works. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on the United States from 1868 through to his death in 1899.
Alger secured his literary niche in 1868 with the publication of Ragged Dick, the story of a poor bootblack's rise to middle-class respectability. The novel was a success. His many books that followed were essentially variations on Ragged Dick and featured stock characters: the valiant, hardworking, honest youth; the noble mysterious stranger; the snobbish youth; and the evil, greedy squire.
In the 1870s, Alger's fiction was growing stale. His publisher suggested he tour the Western United States for fresh material to incorporate into his fiction. Alger took a trip to California, but the trip had little effect on his writing: he remained mired in the staid theme of "poor boy makes good". The backdrops of these novels, however, became the Western United States, rather than the urban environments of the Northeastern United States.
Biography
Childhood: 1832–1847 Alger was born on January 13, 1832, in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the son of Horatio Alger Sr., a Unitarian minister, and Olive Augusta Fenno.Hoyt 1974, pp. 7, 9.Scharnhorst 1980, pp. 17–18.
He had many connections with the New England Puritan aristocracy of the early 19th century. He was the descendant of Pilgrim Fathers Robert Cushman, Thomas Cushman, and William Bassett. He was also 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.Scharnhorst 1985, pp. 5–6.
Alger's siblings Olive Augusta and James were born in 1833 and 1836, respectively. A disabled sister, Annie, was born in 1840, and a brother, Francis, in 1842.Alger 2008, p. 277. Alger was a precocious boy afflicted with myopia and asthma,Scharnhorst 1985, p. 10. but Alger Sr. decided early that his eldest son would one day enter the ministry. To that end, Alger's father tutored him in classical studies and allowed him to observe the responsibilities of ministering to parishioners.Hoyt 1974, pp. 10–11.
Alger began attending Chelsea Grammar School in 1842,Hoyt 1974, p. 14. but by December 1844 his father's financial troubles had worsened considerably. In search of a better salary, he moved the family to Marlborough, Massachusetts, an agricultural town 25 miles west of Boston, where he was installed as pastor of the Second Congregational Society in January 1845 with a salary sufficient to meet his needs.Scharnhorst 1985, pp. 11–13. Alger attended Gates Academy, a local preparatory school, and completed his studies at age 15. He published his earliest literary works in local newspapers.Scharnhorst 1985, p. 14.
Harvard and early works: 1848–1864
In July 1848, Alger passed the Harvard entrance examinations and was admitted to the class of 1852. The 14-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 Hodges 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".Scharnhorst 1985, p. 15.
Alger thrived in the highly disciplined and regimented Harvard environment, winning scholastic and other prestigious awards.Scharnhorst 1985, p. 17. His genteel poverty and less-than-aristocratic heritage, however, barred him from membership in the Hasty Pudding Club and the Porcellian Club.Scharnhorst 1985, p. 21. In 1849, he became a professional writer when he sold two essays and a poem to the Pictorial National Library, a Boston magazine.Hoyt 1974, p. 18. He began reading 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 Society honors in 1852, eighth in a class of 88.Scharnhorst 1985, pp. 18–23.
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.Scharnhorst 1985, pp. 26–27. He briefly attended Harvard Divinity School in 1853, possibly to be reunited with a romantic interest,Scharnhorst 1985, pp. 27–28. but he left in November 1853 to take a job as an assistant editor at the Boston Daily Advertiser.Scharnhorst 1985, p. 29. 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 directing the 1856 summer session at Deerfield Academy.Hoyt 1974, pp. 24, 28.Scharnhorst 1985, p. 33.
His first book, Bertha's Christmas Vision: An Autumn Sheaf, a collection of short pieces, was published in 1856, and his second book, Nothing to Do: A Tilt at Our Best Society, a lengthy satirical poem, was published in 1857.Hoyt 1974, pp. 27–28, 30–33. He attended Harvard Divinity School from 1857 to 1860 and, upon graduation, toured Europe.Scharnhorst 1980, "Chronology". In the spring of 1861, he returned to a nation in the throes of the Civil War.Scharnhorst 1985, p. 54. Exempted from military service for health reasons in July 1863, he wrote in support of the Union cause and associated with New England intellectuals. He was elected an officer in the New England Historic Genealogical Society in 1863.Scharnhorst 1980, p. 26.
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.Hoyt 1974, pp. 40–48. Alger initially wrote for adult magazines, including Harper's Magazine and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, but a friendship with William Taylor Adams, a boys' author, led him to write for the young.Hoyt 1974, pp. 49–50.
Ministry: 1864–1866 On December 8, 1864, Alger was enlisted as a pastor with the First Unitarian Church and Society of Brewster, Massachusetts.Scharnhorst 1985, p. 64. Between ministerial duties, he organized games and amusements for boys in the parish, railed against smoking and drinking, and served as president of the local chapter of the Cadets for Temperance.Scharnhorst 1980, p. 33.Hoyt 1974, p. 4. He submitted stories to The Student and Schoolmate, a boys' monthly magazine of moral writings, edited by William Taylor Adams and published in Boston by Joseph H. Allen.Scharnhorst 1985, p. 65. In September 1865, his second boys' book, Paul Prescott's Charge, was published, receiving favorable reviews.Alger 2008, p. 278.Scharnhorst 1980, p. 28.
Child sexual abuse Early in 1866, a church committee of men was formed to investigate reports that Alger had sexually molested boys. Church officials reported to the hierarchy in Boston that Alger had been charged with "the abominable and revolting crime of gross familiarity with boys". Alger admitted he had been imprudent, considered his association with the church dissolved, and left town.Hoyt 1974, pp. 1–6, 60–63.Scharnhorst 1980, pp. 29–30. 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. The officials were satisfied and decided no further action would be taken.Scharnhorst 1985, p. 3.
New York City: 1866–1896
In 1866, Alger relocated to New York City where he studied the condition of the street boys, and found in them an abundance of interesting material for stories. He 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, which 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.Scharnhorst 1980, pp. 30–34.
In January 1867, the first of 12 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.Scharnhorst 1980, p. 34. It proved to be his best-selling work. After Ragged Dick he wrote almost entirely for boys,Scharnhorst 1980, p. 48 and he signed a contract with publisher Loring for a Ragged Dick Series.Scharnhorst 1980, p. 35.
In spite of the series' success, Alger was on financially uncertain ground and tutored the five sons of the international banker Joseph Seligman. He wrote serials for Young IsraelScharnhorst 1980, p. 35–36. and lived in the Seligman home until 1876.Alger 2008, p. 279. In 1875, Alger produced the serial Shifting for Himself and Sam's Chance, a sequel to The Young Outlaw.Hoyt 1974, pp. 184–186. It was evident in these books that Alger had grown stale. Profits suffered, and he headed West for new material at Loring's behest, arriving in California in February 1877.Hoyt 1974, p. 187. He enjoyed a reunion with his brother James in San Francisco and returned to New York late in 1877 on a schooner that sailed around Cape Horn.Hoyt 1974, pp. 187–188. He wrote a few lackluster books in the following years, rehashing his established themes, but this time the tales were played before a Western background rather than an urban one.Hoyt 1974, p. 190.
In New York, Alger continued to tutor the town's aristocratic youth and to rehabilitate boys from the streets.Hoyt 1974, p. 199. He was writing both urban and Western-themed tales. In 1879, for example, he published The District Messenger Boy and The Young Miner.Hoyt 1974, p. 201. In 1877, Alger's fiction became a target of librarians concerned about sensational juvenile fiction. An effort was made to remove his works from public collections, but the debate was only partially successful, defeated by the renewed interest in his work after his death.Nackenoff 1994, pp. 250–257.
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 a biography of President James A. Garfield but filled the work with contrived conversations and boyish excitements rather than facts. The book sold well. Alger was commissioned to write a biography of Abraham Lincoln, but again it was Alger the boys' novelist opting for thrills rather than facts.Hoyt 1974, pp. 207–210.
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 street boys, Harvard classmates, and the social elite. In Massachusetts, he was regarded with the same reverence as Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Last years: 1896–1899