page_title: Horatio Alger, Jr.
section_title: Boys' books
hierarchical_section_title: Horatio Alger, Jr. / Boys' books
caption_attribution_description: Frontispiece of the 1895 Henry T. Coates and Company edition of "Ragged Dick"
context_page_description: Horatio Alger, Jr. was an American writer. He wrote magazine stories and poems, a few novels for adults, and 100 plus boys' books. His boys' books were hugely popular.
  Alger was born in Massachusetts, and attended Harvard College. He became a Unitarian minister, but his career as a clergyman was brief. It ended when his congregation charged him with child molestation. Criminal charges were not placed against him, but his career in the church was finished.
  He moved to New York City to become a professional writer. In 1868, Alger found his place in the literary world with his fourth boys' book, Ragged Dick. This book is about a poor shoe shine boy in New York City who rises to middle class comfort and security through hard work, honesty, and a little luck. The book was a great success.
  Alger continued to write boys' books. They were similar to Ragged Dick in theme and other details. Characters such as the poor but honest boy, the snobbish youth, and the greedy lawyer appeared in one book after another. Details changed from book to book, but the essentials remained the same. Boys loved the books.
  By the 1870s, boys' tastes had changed. They wanted cowboys, hunters, and Indians.
context_section_description: The quality of his literary allusions however makes his writing distinctive. These allusions set his work apart from the books cranked out in the "fiction factories" of the day. Great authors alluded to in Alger's boys' book include Shakespeare, Milton, Longfellow, Cicero, Horace, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, and dozens of others. The Bible is referenced in more than half of his works. These allusions reveal Alger's knowledge of literature and "enhance the literary quality of his work".
  The most prevalent theme in Alger's novels is the "rise to respectability".  Business success was important to the young Alger hero, but even more important was becoming a respected citizen. This does not mean a rise to wealth and riches. Many of Alger's books end with their young heroes getting modest clerical jobs in large firms. These jobs offer chances to rise further. Alger's heroes deserve their good fortune because they are virtuous young men. Alger was mainly a moral instructor for the young. He was content to guide boys on the path of piety and moral virtue rather than business success. Other themes in his works include Strength through Adversity, Beauty versus Money, the Country versus the City, the Old World versus the New World, and the Search for an Identity.
  Alger's books are filled with stereotypical characters and dramatic highpoints (setpieces) played over and over again in book after book. One such setpiece is the struggle between the virtuous young hero and a snobbish youth. These setpieces always end with the snobbish youth getting his just deserts. This particular setpiece likely has its source in the childhood bullying Alger suffered from neighborhood boys in Chelsea.
  Other setpieces include the cold, unfeeling lawyer threatening the young hero and his widowed mother with foreclosure (another setpiece taken from Alger's childhood), and the brutal poorhouse staff making the young hero's life miserable while he dwells under their roof. Alger's young readers never tired of these stock characters and setpieces.
  In the 1970s Alger's work was regarded by readers and scholars as almost unreadable. He received a new lease on literary life when his homosexuality became known. Edwin Hoyt speculated in Horatio' Boys (1974) that Alger might become of interest to communities outside the literary one, and may even attain a status to rival that of Oscar Wilde.
caption: Illustration from the front of a book promoting the Ragged Dick Series
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