author
Joseph Adams Puffer
1872–1958
A Methodist minister, educator, and early writer on youth behavior, he is best known for exploring boys’ social worlds in The Boy and His Gang and for writing about vocational guidance in schools. His work reflects a practical interest in how young people grow, organize themselves, and find direction.
1 Audiobook
The boy and his gang
by Joseph Adams Puffer
About the author
Born in Maine in 1872, Joseph Adams Puffer was an American minister, educator, and author whose books focused on the lives and development of young people. He wrote The Boy and His Gang in 1912, a study of boys’ group life and behavior, and followed it with Vocational Guidance: The Teacher as a Counselor, published in 1913/1914.
Puffer’s career linked religion, education, and social concerns. Available records describe him as a Methodist minister, and later references to his family and work connect him with education and reform-minded writing about youth, delinquency, and guidance. His books suggest a strong belief that adults should understand young people as they are, then help channel their energy toward healthier paths.
He died in 1958. Although he is not widely known today, his writing remains of interest to readers studying early twentieth-century ideas about adolescence, schooling, and the social lives of boys.