In Massachusetts, he was regarded with the same reverence as Harriet Beecher Stowe. This myth was important to the general population because as the United States was becoming more corporate and industrialized it because harder for people to control their own fates. Alger was commissioned to write a biography of Abraham Lincoln, but again it was Alger the boys' novelist opting for thrills rather than facts. Horatio Alger Jr. was an American writer of young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through good works. Ranging from the Bible and William Shakespeare (half of Alger's books contain Shakespearean references) to John Milton and Cicero, the allusions he employed were a testament to his erudition. He was elected an officer in the New England Historic Genealogical Society in 1863. Alger 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. 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". [18] He briefly attended Harvard Divinity School in 1853, possibly to be reunited with a romantic interest,[19] but left in November 1853 to take a job as an assistant editor at the Boston Daily Advertiser. 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 was chosen Class Odist and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa Society honors in 1852, eighth in a class of 88. Research the meaning of any allusions that are unfamiliar to you. The majority of his readers clung to the images of success, fortune, and wealth, but ignored the morals. It was rare that a kind rich person would help them out by giving them money or a better job. One example of his fame comes from an award that bears his name, the Horatio Alger Award. Horatio Alger Jr. (/ˈældʒər/; January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was an American writer of young adult 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. [70], A 1982 musical, Shine!, was based on Alger's work, particularly Ragged Dick and Silas Snobden's Office Boy. Boston: McGraw Hill College, 1999. [58], He suffered from bronchitis and asthma for two years. Unlike real life, in the stories everything works out great. [51] He was writing both urban and Western-themed tales. His properties around Chelsea were seized and assigned to a local squire who held the mortgages. Alger was born in Massachusetts, and attended Harvard College. I hope you enjoyed my trip back through my old research article as much as I did! Alger was forced to give this up due to alleged sexual scandals with young boys. [39], 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. Ambition Allusions, Definition, Citation, Reference, Information - Allusion to Ambition Alger, Horatio author of a series of rags-to-riches stories. He continued to write, submitting his work to religious and literary magazines, with varying success. People are rewarded for doing good things and helping people out. [16] 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 is diligent in business and is likely to become a rich man." Alger became the bestselling author of his time period with millions of copies sold to the public. American History. All of Alger's juvenile novels share essentially the same theme: a teenage boy improves his circumstances by virtuous behavior. Horatio Alger Jr. (/ˈældʒər/; January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was an American writer of young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through good works. 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. After the success of Ragged Dick, Alger became an active supporter of charitable institutions that supported runaway boys. You could also do it yourself at any point in time. The following provided the information for my thoughts in this lens. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which … [52] In 1877, Alger's fiction became a target of librarians concerned about sensational juvenile fiction. The public wanted sensational thrills. adjective of or characteristic of the heroes in the novels of Horatio Alger, who begin life in poverty and achieve success and wealth through honesty, hard work, and virtuous behavior: the Horatio Alger story of his rise in the business world. "[78], Alger scholar Edwin P. 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". [6] Alger was a precocious boy afflicted with myopia and asthma,[7][8] 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. [60][64], Alger's works received favorable comments and experienced a resurgence following his death. The book sold well. [40] He abandoned forever any thought of a career in the church, and focused instead on his writing. [46] 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. Critics claim that through Alger's books "he misleads kids, probably causing many who stood up to the neighborhood bully to wind up with a bloody nose." Referring to someone as a “Horatio Alger hero” means that person has overcome adversity and achieved success thanks to hard work and perseverance. In Silas Snobden's Office Boy, a kidnapped boy disguised as a girl is threatened with being sent to the "insane asylum" if he should reveal his actual sex. 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. This brings the boy—and his plight—to the attention of a wealthy individual. This novel was a huge success. In his early adulthood her was a Unitarian minister in Massachusetts. I have heard of him but not know much so this is information for me. (Forward written by Ralph D. Gardener), Alger, Horatio. a. Characters fall in love and marry on the basis of their character, talents, or intellect rather than the size of their bank accounts. He was instead the crafty street urchin who through quick wits and luck rose from impoverishment to riches". 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. [29] Between ministerial duties, he organized games and amusements for boys in the parish, railed against smoking and drinking, and organized and served as president of the local chapter of the Cadets for Temperance. Interesting stories about famous people, biographies, humorous stories, photos and videos. The story, about a poor bootblack's rise to middle-class respectability, was a huge success. In the 1870s, Alger's fiction was growing stale. The Erie Train Boy. What does this allusion tell us about the country? 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 respectable middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. [28], On December 8, 1864, Alger was enlisted as a pastor with the First Unitarian Church and Society of Brewster, Massachusetts. The lack of huge amounts of description makes the reading go quickly but there is enough description so you feel that you could know the characters. [20] He loathed editing and quit in 1854 to teach at The Grange, a boys' boarding school in Rhode Island. Some of Alger's stories brought attention to important social needs of the late nineteenth century. He would end up in some kind of situation where he would help someone and in return received money or a better job. The backdrops of these novels, however, became the American West rather than the urban environments of the northeastern United States. Just better. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on … 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. [46][49] 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. The story itself was amusing because the whole situation relied heavily on luck, but then again most stories of this type do. 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". [13] 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". He wrote "Friar Anselmo" at this time, a poem that tells of a sinning cleric's atonement through good deeds. [26], His first novel, Marie Bertrand: The Felon's Daughter, was serialized in New York Weekly in 1864, and his first boys' book, Frank's Campaign, was published by A. K. Loring in Boston the same year. The stories of Horatio Alger were misleading because they caused people to believe that anyone could improve their social status. [41], In January 1867 the first of 12 installments of Ragged Dick appeared in Student and Schoolmate. Horatio Alger, Jr. (1834 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 respectable middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. Hudson, The Purple Land (2.3) Horatio Alger (2.3) H.L. -allusion to a place … Public librarians questioned whether his books should be made available to the young. Some of the winners include later presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. [80], Alan Trachtenberg, in his introduction to the Signet Classic edition of Ragged Dick (1990), points out that Alger had tremendous sympathy for boys and discovered a calling for himself in the composition of boys' books. 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." Enough detail is left out that the characters could change into those of the reader. [37][38] 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. Horatio Alger and Rags-to-Riches Beatitudes The Sermon on the Mount Rising Tide of Color against White World Supremacy (Theodore Lothrop Stoddard) Rosie Rosenthal Cannes Carnegie Hall Owl-eyes Marseilles Castle Rack-rent Chartreuse Marie Antoinette Cunard Follies Madame de Maintenon Immanuel Kant Fox-trot French bob Hopalong Cassidy Hotel de Ville He claims that Alger's intended audience were youths whose "motivations for action are effectively shaped by the lessons they learn". He wrote magazine stories and poems, a few novels for adults, and 100 plus boys' books. Because of the determination of its people, the country rose like a phoenix from the ashes of revolution. I was fascinated by the images that he portrayed, and spent some time reading his stories and thinking about how they impacted society. Alger doesn't give any hair color, the biggest details are the cleanliness of the person and their approximate age and occupation. [47] It was evident in these books that Alger had grown stale. He died on July 18, 1899, at the home of his sister in Natick, Massachusetts. Turgenev, Sportsman’s Sketches (14.1, 14.7) Historical References. His many books that followed were essentially variations on Ragged Dick and featured stock characters: the valiant, hard-working, honest youth; the noble mysterious stranger; the snobbish youth; and the evil, greedy squire. These children were brought to cities and trained as pickpockets on the streets and had to serve masters. [44], In spite of the series' success, Alger was on financially uncertain ground and tutored the five sons of the international banker Joseph Seligman. [65] In 1926, however, reader interest plummeted, and his major publisher ceased printing the books altogether. [35][a] Alger denied nothing, admitted he had been imprudent, considered his association with the church dissolved, and left town. The villains are dirty and scary looking whereas the heroes are clean, honest, good people. [46] In 1881, he wrote a biography of President James A. Garfield[46] but filled the work with contrived conversations and boyish excitements rather than facts. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on the United States during the Gilded Age. He published two poorly received adult novels, Helen Ford and Timothy Crump's Ward. The officials were satisfied and decided no further action would be taken. Mason (12.31) Circe, character in Greek mythology (13.52) Ivan Turgenieff, a.k.a. 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". Alger continued to produce stories of honest boys outwitting evil, greedy squires and malicious youths. 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 less industrious boy. [60] Alger once estimated that he earned only $100,000 between 1866 and 1896;[62] at his death he had little money, leaving only small sums to family and friends. The stories give hope and comfort to those that read them because they are so uplifting, unlike reality. His rise to become head of an international corporation is a real Horatio Alger story. The first, the Rise to Respectability, he observes, is evident in both his early and his late books, notably Ragged Dick, whose impoverished young hero declares, "I mean to turn over a new leaf, and try to grow up 'spectable." This award was created in 1947 by American Schools and Colleges Association to honor people who pulled themselves out of where they had been in society, followed the the "American Tradition" and became "self-made men." [11] Horatio attended Gates Academy, a local preparatory school,[10] and completed his studies at age 15. Such images, Trachtenberg believes, may imply "a positive view of homoeroticism as an alternative way of life, of living by sympathy rather than aggression". Of these novels, however, became the bestselling author of his stories that Alger 's work were. Them out by giving them money or rescue someone from an overturned carriage mason ( 12.31 Circe. 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