Joseph Alexander Altsheler
Joseph Alexander Altsheler was an American author born on April 29, 1862, in Three Springs, Kentucky. He pursued his education at Liberty College and Vanderbilt University before embarking on a career in journalism, where he worked as a reporter and editor for the Courier-Journal in Louisville from 1885 to 1892. After marrying Sarah Boles in 1888 and relocating to New York City in 1892, Altsheler took on a role as a feature writer for the New York World, including a stint as a correspondent in Honolulu during 1898.
Altsheler is best known for his prolific writing career, which began in 1896 when he started crafting historically-themed novels aimed at young readers. Over the course of his career, he published forty-five novels that explored critical periods in American history, such as the Civil War and the settling of the West, often featuring young protagonists overcoming significant challenges. His most notable work is the Young Trailers series, highlighting the experiences of pioneers. Although he achieved considerable popularity during his lifetime, interest in his work waned after his death on June 5, 1919, partly due to changing societal views regarding historical representation. By the early twenty-first century, only a few of his titles remained in circulation.
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Joseph Alexander Altsheler
Writer
- Born: April 29, 1862
- Birthplace: Three Springs, Kentucky
- Died: June 5, 1919
- Place of death: New York
Biography
Joseph Alexander Altsheler was born on April 29, 1862, in Three Springs, Kentucky. His parents were Joseph Altsheler and Louise Snoddy Altsheler. Altsheler attended Liberty College in Glasgow, Kentucky, and then Vanderbilt University. From 1885 to 1892 he worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1888, he married Sarah Boles, and the couple had one son, named Sidney. The family moved to New York City in 1892, and Altsheler found a position as a feature writer and then features editor for the New York World. The family lived in Honolulu during 1898, when Altsheler served as the World’s correspondent there, and then returned to New York City permanently.
Altsheler’s fiction writing career began in 1896 when he tried unsuccessfully to find an appealing series of novels for boys and decided to try writing one himself. Using his own interest in history as a starting point, he created forty-five historically accurate novels about difficult times in United States history, such as Texas’s rise to statehood, the Civil War, the French and Indian War, the settling of the West, and World War I. All of the books, produced at a pace of nearly two every year, feature plucky young men facing powerful enemies before emerging heroically.
Between 1896 and 1919, Altsheler published forty-five novels for boys, and he was named the most popular boys’ author in America. His Young Trailers series, about pioneers in the Ohio Valley, are considered his strongest work. After his death, his popularity declined. Readers had less tolerance for long digressions of historical background, and began to find Altsheler’s depictions of Native Americans racist. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, only a few titles, including The Hunters of the Hills: A Story of the Great French and Indian War (1916), were still in print.
The Altshelers happened to be traveling in Germany in 1914 when World War I broke out, and they faced tremendous difficulties making their way back home. Altsheler never regained his health after this ordeal. He died in New York on June 5, 1919.