Horatio Alger, Jr. was born in Revere, Massachusetts. He wrote 537 novels and short stories (including variant titles and published 118 novels), 94 poems, and 27 articles, one of the first boys' series. His young heroes succeed through a mixture of pluck and luck. They are lucky, in part, because they deserve to be lucky.

A given hero may appear in several books, e.g., Ragged Dick, but the books do not have a common set of characters. Alger's stories appeared in a variety of formats, including hardcover books, serial publications (magazines and story papers), and pamphlets. Alger is often credited with inventing the "strive and succeed" spirit that inspired boys to work hard and advance themselves to attain the American Dream.

Horatio Alger, Jr. was the oldest of five children of a debt-ridden New England, Unitarian minister. He was a very frail boy. He was under weight and undersized, suffered from bronchial asthma, and near sightedness. He did not start home schooling until he was six years old. He started attending school outside of the home school at age 10. He entered Harvard at age 16 and achieved Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated eighth in a class of 89. He volunteered for the Union army three times and was rejected three times because of his asthma, near-sightedness, and small size (five feet, two inches and about 120 pounds).

When he was a minister in the Unitarian Church in Brewster, Massachusetts, he befriended many of the local boys, and took them on seasides picnics and had sex with the boys. Two of the boys Thomas S. Crocker and John Clark, eventually stepped forward, and confessed that they had engaged in homosexual acts with the 34-year old Alger. He was a pederast, and would not deny the accusation before the church board.

Reverend Horatio Alger Jr, stripped of his pulpit, put his belongings into his carpetbag and slipped out of the Cape Cod town forever before the word got out. He fled to New York City, where he achieved fame writing stories for boys. When in New York, he "informally adopted" several young men. He fell in love with a young Chinese boy, Wing, who died in a street-car accident. Alger became a patron of the "Newsboys' Lodging House," a shelter for homeless boys. Alger gave away most of his royalties to "needy" young men.

America's all-time best-selling author was Horatio Alger, Jr whose 118 novels sold more than 400 million copies. Had Horatio Alger lived today, he might have been a charter member of the Gay Liberation movement, and the North American Man/boy love Association. He became a philanthropist working to improve the conditions for orphans, homeless youths and runaways.

Horatio Alger, Jr. taught school or tutored school children for a good part of his life. His most famous student is Benjamin Cardozo who went on to be a Supreme Court justice.

Horatio Alger wrote mostly juvenile fiction: short stories, serialized novels, and novels. He also wrote biography, juvenile biography (James Garfield, Abraham Lincoln, and Daniel Webster), and poetry. He did also some serious writing for adult publications (essays), but he was not nearly as successful at that.