Alger, Horatio Jr. | Gary Scharnhorst and Jack Bales (essay date 1985)
Gary Scharnhorst and Jack Bales (essay date 1985)
SOURCE: "Cast Upon the Breakers (1887–1899)," in The Lost Life of Horatio Alger, Jr., Indiana University Press, 1985, pp. 127–48.
[In the following chapter, Scharnhorst and Bales provide biographical and historical information on the last decade of Alger's life, with special attention to his politics and economic ideology.]
I
Rupert did not envy his father's old partner. "I would rather be poor and honest, " he reflected, "than live in a fine house, surrounded by luxury, gained by grinding the faces of the poor. "
—HORATIO ALGER, JR.,
Rupert's Ambition
Alger was a mugwump, a liberal Republican committed to principles of fair prices and decent wages, a critic of sharp business practices and cutthroat competition. He was neither an apologist for the wealthy class nor a stalking horse for industrial capitalism. Rather,...
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