{"id":102,"date":"2014-04-02T07:49:55","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T11:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/?p=102"},"modified":"2014-04-02T08:12:54","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T12:12:54","slug":"the-history-of-horatio-alger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/02\/the-history-of-horatio-alger\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of … Horatio Alger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Have you ever noticed that when politicians are running for office they have a story to tell about how they grew up?\u00a0 <\/span>It usually involves how they came up from nothing, or if that is not true, it is about the hardships they conquered to get where they are.\u00a0 <\/span>The idea of mobility is part of the American ideal.\u00a0 <\/span>Stories that start with a hard scrabble childhood and lead to vast riches and success through perseverance and hard work are popular with the American people.\u00a0 <\/span>Politicians like to play into that as much as possible in an attempt to have us like them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

These stories are found throughout American history.\u00a0 <\/span>Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Girard, Marshall Field, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Carnegie, James Garfield, John Rockefeller, Sam Walton, Oprah Winfrey, and R. A. Dickey are just a few examples of people who rose to great success from humble beginnings. <\/span><\/p>\n

The man who popularized those stories of American rags to riches, Horatio Alger, is less well known today than the idea associated with his name.\u00a0 <\/span>Horatio Alger was a 19th<\/span><\/sup> century writer whose tales of hard luck youth rising up are often linked to the value of social and economic mobility that many associate with the United States American dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

Horatio Alger was born on January 13th<\/span><\/sup>, 1832 to a Unitarian Minister in Chelsea, Massachusetts.\u00a0 <\/span>He grew up in genteel poverty, well-educated and of the right background but with financial concerns.\u00a0 <\/span>In 1845 his family moved from Chelsea to a new church in Marlborough, Massachusetts after a bankruptcy.\u00a0 <\/span>Things went a bit better in Marlborough and young Horatio was able to attend a local preparatory school, Gates Academy, so that he could try and pass college entrance exams.\u00a0 <\/span>Young Alger also began writing poems and stories during these years that he was able to publish in local papers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Horatio Alger passed entrance exams for Harvard College in 1848.\u00a0 <\/span>He did well in his studies there and continued to write.\u00a0 <\/span>Several of his pieces were published in national magazines.\u00a0 <\/span>While at Harvard, he also determined that he wanted to be a poet or, secondarily, a literary writer.<\/span><\/p>\n

As is often the case with college graduates, after his commencement in 1852, Horatio Alger\u2019s desires met reality and they had to be revised.\u00a0 <\/span>While he was able to get pieces published, both poetry and stories, he was not able to earn a living as a writer.\u00a0 <\/span>Therefore, Alger broadened the magazines he applied to and worked on pieces that were less literary.\u00a0 <\/span>He also sought other means of employment.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Alger briefly returned to Harvard to contemplate his next steps and wound up taking a job at a paper in Boston.\u00a0 <\/span>He lasted a couple months editing copy, but he did not think he was suited for newspaper work.\u00a0 <\/span>He finally took a job teaching at a boarding school and continued to write on the side.\u00a0 <\/span>He was successful at getting stories published in magazines and even had a book of poetry published that received good reviews but did lousy sales.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the school where he was working closed, Alger took a summer position as principal of another school and then returned to Boston and worked as a private tutor.\u00a0 <\/span>He continued to be published in respected local and national magazines.\u00a0 <\/span>He put out another book of poetry.\u00a0 <\/span>Still, he was unable to earn a living as a writer.\u00a0 <\/span>He finally decided to follow his father into the ministry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alger went back to Harvard and graduated from the Theological School in 1860.\u00a0 <\/span>During the Civil War Alger was drafted and then rejected for service due to his nearsightedness and his short stature.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, he wrote poems and articles in favor of the Union cause.\u00a0 <\/span>It was during the Civil War years that he also made an important decision.\u00a0 <\/span>Alger acknowledged to himself and others that his dream of literary success would not be realized and he decided to write children\u2019s books in an attempt to\u00a0achieve financial success as a writer.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Horatio Alger took a job as a pastor at First Unitarian Church in Brewster, Massachusetts in 1864.\u00a0 <\/span>The job as a minister led to the most disturbing incident of his life and career.\u00a0 <\/span>Alger\u2019s personal papers were destroyed at his request upon his death so his part of the tale will never be known.\u00a0 <\/span>Letters from the church to others indicate that he left his position in 1866 because of a scandal.\u00a0 <\/span>He was accused of some kind of sexual misconduct with one or more boys in his parish.\u00a0 <\/span>Alger left the post immediately and his Father stepped in to save his reputation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The parish was at first uncertain how to handle the crisis.\u00a0 <\/span>A letter from Alger\u2019s Father, which did not deny the charges, proposed that Alger would never again work as a minister if charges were not pressed against him.\u00a0 <\/span>Again, Alger\u2019s papers were destroyed, but it does not appear that he denied the charges and he never served as a minister again, even though he took jobs later in life to supplement his writing income.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the scandal, Horatio Alger moved to New York City and for the first time was able to eke out a living as a writer.\u00a0 <\/span>His decision during the Civil War to turn to children\u2019s fiction had begun to pay off before the scandal in Brewster.\u00a0 <\/span>He was able to get his first children\u2019s book, Frank’s Campaign<\/em>, published in late 1864 and it was considered a financial success.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Over the next three years he wrote three more children\u2019s books which were well received but not big money makers.\u00a0 <\/span>In 1867 he wrote a story for Student and Schoolmate <\/em>magazine titled Ragged Dick; or Street Life in New York.\u00a0<\/em>It was later developed into a book which became Alger\u2019s greatest financial success and the basis for the bulk of the rest of his career.\u00a0 Ragged Dick<\/em> is the tale of a young boy who shines shoes for a living; he is a boot-black.\u00a0 <\/span>While the young boy, Dick, is homeless and lives a tough life, he maintains his moral compass and eventually that leads to his reaching the lowest rung on the ladder of success.\u00a0 <\/span>He becomes a respectable young man in a counting house.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ragged Dick<\/em> was the peak of Alger\u2019s writing career.\u00a0 <\/span>Alger struck while the iron was hot and churned out story after story following the successful formula of the first book.\u00a0 <\/span>This formula was simple; a young boy through hard work and morality gets a break (usually from a wealthy older gentleman) and is able to go from poverty to the first rung of respectability.\u00a0 <\/span>His stories were not, in fact, about moving to great riches, just to the first rung of the ladder. \u00a0<\/span>It was only after Alger\u2019s death that the connection to his name came to be associated with the idea of rags to riches.<\/span><\/p>\n

The formula worked for the next several years, but never achieved the financial success of the original.\u00a0 <\/span>Sales fell off and tastes changed.\u00a0 <\/span>Alger tried writing with limited success in a more sensational style.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Eventually, he had to take employment as a tutor to supplement his writing.\u00a0 <\/span>His tutoring was successful and he was good at getting his pupils into elite schools.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At various points Alger tried to publish adult writing, sometimes seeing positive reviews but never selling well.\u00a0 <\/span>Alger focused on quantity of writing to maximize his earnings.\u00a0 <\/span>As a result, his work was sometime accused of being sloppy.\u00a0 <\/span>He wrote a biography for children of President James Garfield immediately after Garfield\u2019s death in 1881 that sold well, however, it was not researched and contained many errors.\u00a0 <\/span>After two hastily prepared biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Webster, Alger gave up the practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were no more sexual scandals in Alger\u2019s life or, it appears, accusations of misconduct.\u00a0 <\/span>Alger never married.\u00a0 <\/span>He became known for his charity work once he moved to New York City.\u00a0 <\/span>He raised money for boy\u2019s houses and tried to help orphans.\u00a0 <\/span>This work is, of course, now colored by the information about his time at the Brewster church.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Horatio Alger worked up until 1896, three years before his death.\u00a0 <\/span>His passing was not widely mourned.\u00a0 <\/span>However, his writing experienced resurgence at the turn of the century until the 1920s.\u00a0 <\/span>He sold more books during that period than he had sold during his lifetime.\u00a0 <\/span>The idea of the Horatio Alger hero surpassed the actual man in life.\u00a0 <\/span>A set of awards, the Horatio Alger Awards, is still given out annually in honor of people who, despite adversity, rise through the free market.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever noticed that when politicians are running for office they have a story to tell about how they grew up?\u00a0 It usually involves how they came up from nothing, or if that is not true, it is about … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[53,52,54,23],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","tag-alger","tag-horatio","tag-rags-to-riches","tag-writers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p29EPY-1E","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.katecooch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}