Horatio Alger, Jr.

Up until 1961, this completely ficticious account of Alger's life was the only biography of Alger ever written. The book recounts a version of Alger's life based on a diary and letters that never existed. For nearly forty years, this biography was accepted as definitive and accurate, and even today it is still mistakenly cited as a reliable source in most reference texts.

In the author's own words, this version of Alger's life, "literally swarms … with countless absurdities."

This biography was the first major attempt to discredit Mayes' biography. It corrects some of Mayes' fictions, but incorporates others. It also features a chronological list of Alger's works and several pictures of Alger formats.

According to Northern Illinois University, Gardner single-handedly resurrected interest in Alger the writer and Alger as a collectible author during the 1960s. This biography uses artificially constructed dialogue to tell the story of Alger's life, which helps it read more like a novel than a research piece, even though it is not always contextually accurate.

It is also valuable for the appended bibliography of Alger's works, which is considered one of the definitive sources when it comes to identifying Alger first editions.

This book is somewhat of a sensationalist biography of Alger, and relies heavily on Gardner's biography.

Scharnhorst's first book on Alger is considered the first to be completely factual. This collaboration with Jack Bales also gives a very accurate description of Alger's life, as well as discussing Alger's effects on literature and previous biographies of Alger.

This book takes a scholarly and well-researched look at Horatio Alger's writings and their influence on the American Character. Northern Illinois University calls it an "exceptional volume".