Alvin F. Harlow's Books

Alvin Fay Harlow enjoyed a writing career that would make any writer proud: history, folklore, Americana, biography, memoirs, children's books, articles for newspapers, magazines, and encyclopedias, fiction short and long--hundreds of works in all. Following is a list of his books. It may or may not be complete, but you won't find another list like this one on the Internet.

• Old Towpaths: The Story of the American Canal Era (1926)
• Old Postbags: The Story of the Sending of a Letter in Ancient and Modern Times (1928)
• Clowning through Life (1928) with Eddie Foy
• Clark the Magnificent (1930)
• Old Bowery Days: The Chronicles of a Famous Street (1931)
• A Vagabond Trouper (1931) with Jefferson De Angelis
• Old Waybills: The Romance of the Express Companies (1934, 1969)
• Schoolhouse in the Foothills (1935 or 1936) with Ella Enslow and Thomas Hart Benton
• Old Wires and New Waves: The History of the Telegraph, Telephone, and Wireless (1936)
• When Horses Pulled Boats: A Story of Early Canals (1936, 1987)
• Murders Not Quite Solved (1938, 1944)
• Paper Chase: The Amenities of Stamp Collecting (1940)
• Schoolmaster of Yesterday: A Three Generations Story, 1820-1919 (1940) with Millard Fillmore Kennedy, illustrated by Howard Simon
• Joel Chandler Harris (Uncle Remus): Plantation Storyteller (1941, 1961, 1964) with W.C. Nims
• Weep No More, My Lady (1942)
• Bret Harte of the Old West (1943, 1968)
• Theodore Roosevelt: Strenuous American (1943, 1947, 1962) illustrated by Oscar Ogg
• Steelways of New England (1946)
• The Road of the Century: The Story of the New York Central (1947)
• The Serene Cincinnatians (1950)
• The Ringlings: Wizards of the Circus (1951, 1968)
• A Treasury of Railroad Folklore: The Stories, Tall Tales, Traditions, Ballads, and Songs of the American Railroad Man, Benjamin A. Botkin, editor (1953)
• Indiana's Canal Heritage (1954)
• Henry Bergh, Founder of the A.S.P.C.A (1957)
• Andrew Carnegie (1959)
• Brass-Pounders: Young Telegraphers of the Civil War (1962)

Thanks to Ruth Dorrel, Archivist, Franklin College, Franklin, Indiana, for further information on Alvin Fay Harlow's books.

Text copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley