Horatio alger was a popular and influential author of the late 19th century, one. Popular novelist during the industrial revolution who wrote rags to riches books praising the values of hard work. In more than 100 books, alger created characters who tended to follow a very. Horatio alger american author britannica encyclopedia britannica. Important books to know for apush ap us history with troy. But the real horatio alger story, as compelling as any novel, is darker.
In the more than 100 books that he would write over 30 years, alger followed the ragstoriches formula that he had hit upon in his first book. The genre arose out of the widespread urbanization that followed the civil war and paralleled the. The whole rags to riches ideology kept society orderly, and was also the reason there werent many huge uprisings against the wealthy. Stratemeyer was ill as well, and was not able to begin work on the manuscript until after alger had died on july 18th, 1899.
Founders library at niu has acquired a comprehensive collection of more than 2,000 books and periodicals by and about horatio alger, and the library now is. Horatio alger basically just stated the ideas and hopes of the poormiddle classes. A novel promoting abolition, intensified sectional conflict. From the debut of his first novel, ragged dick, in 1867, alger was. It was so fashionable to denigrate horatio algers books when i was in college, that i never actually read them until this collection came out. Fame and fortune is the sequel to the adventure book ragged dick. By the time stratemeyer finished the book both parts out for business and falling in with fortune in 1900, the book would be published posthumously in algers name. From the debut of his first novel, ragged dick, in 1867, alger was instrumental in establishing a new genre of dime novels known as the city story. Alger secured his literary niche in 1868 with the publication of his fourth book, ragged dick, the story of a poor bootblacks rise to middleclass respectability.
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