I lived from 1832-1899.
I was from the USA, and am in the Americas category.
I was influenced by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Horatio Alger, Jr. was born in Revere, Massachusetts on January 13, 1832. He grew up in a poor family, the oldest of five children. His father was a Unitarian minister who focused the family on education and religion. Alger was held back in school due to his small size, near sightedness, and asthma. Starting his formal education at age 10 he went on to graduate from Harvard Divinity School in 1852 where he was ranked eight in a class of eighty-nine. While attending Harvard he studied under Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and intended to become a poet.
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When in his twenties, he tried to join the Union Army but was rejected because of his asthma. He then turned his focus to teaching.
After spending some time in Paris (1861), Alger returned home where he became a Unitarian supply minister and later a social service worker.
In 1864 Alger assumed the position of minister in Brewster Massachusetts and resigned in 1866 after being accused of sexual misconduct with thirteen and fifteen year old males. He returned to New York and become a correspondent for the "Boston Transcript" and the "New York Sun" newspapers. It was in the ghettos of New York that he became moved by the poor and homeless. It was these sights that helped develop his rags-to-riches theme for his soon to be popular books.
His books captured the essence of the American dream; hard work, honesty, and strong determination would allow anyone to succeed. He instilled in the readers that no matter their social status, whether poor, orphaned, or powerless, that if they did their best, and always tried to do the right thing, they would succeed.
Alger wrote more than 134 dime novels targeted at an audience of young boys. Most of the novels had the same theme. Focusing on a teenage boy from a poor family who would overcome many obstacles and then against the odds he would seem to build his own American Dream.
The three most popular titles consisted of the Ragged Dick series which began in 1867, the Luck and Pluck series in 1869, and the Tattered Tom series in 1871.
By the late nineteenth century, Alger was one of America's best selling authors along with Mark Twain.
Bibliography and image source: Washburn University and usdreams.com
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