Alex F. Osborn was born in New York City, May 24, 1888, son of John and Kate Osborn. His father was an accountant. After receiving his preliminary education at public schools in New York City, Alex F. Osborn was graduated Ph.B. in 1909 and Ph.M. in 1921 at Hamilton College. Meanwhile, he worked as a reporter for the Buffalo (N.Y.) Times in 1909 and for the Buffalo Express during the following two years. He was assistant secretary of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce in 1911-12 and sales manager of the Hard Manufacturing Co., Buffalo, from 1912 to 1915. In the latter year he entered the field of advertising as manager of the E. P. Remington Advertising Co., Buffalo. During World War I, he worked as a volunteer for the United War Work campaign and there met another young writer, Bruce Barton. He was married in Buffalo, Sept. 5, 1916, to Helen, daughter of Edward Emerson Coatsworth of the city, a lawyer, and had five children: Katharine, Joan, Marion, Russell Barton, and Elinor.


In 1919 Alex Osborn found the advertising agency of Barton, Durstine and Osborn, New York City with Bruce Barton and Roy Durstine. In 1928 the firm was merged with the George Batten Co. to form Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn. Inc. A partner in the original firm, Osborn was named vice- president of the newly merged agency. Advanced to executive vice-president and general manager in 1939, he became vice-chairman of the board in 1946. In 1957 he became a member of the executive committee, and he served in both posts until his retirement in 1960.

In addition to his primary business interests, he was a director of the Marine Midland Trust Company of Western New York and Wildroot Co., Inc., and a trustee of Western Savings Bank, all in Buffalo. An inventor of several advertising display devices for which he held U.S. patents, Osborn was named to the government-sponsored National Inventors Council in 1951 and served as vice-chairman of the council during 1955-59.

In 1954 Alex Osborn established the Creative Education Foundation, Buffalo, and served as its president until the close of his life. He assigned the royalties from his books to finance the foundation, through which he disseminated his concepts for creative thinking and supplemented formal education in this area. The foundation's literature, designed to encourage original ideas, was distributed to thousands of college students and to people in industry and business. He was also active in civic and philanthropic activities in Buffalo, where he maintained his home for many years even while pursuing his career in New York City. He was a trustee of Hamilton College, the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, and the Buffalo General Hospital. A member of the University of Buffalo Council for nine year, he served as vice-chairman during 1955-1959. He was a director of the Buffalo Community Chest (later the United Fund) and of the national organization known as Community Chests and Councils of America. During the First World War he was active in bond and fund-raising campaigns for the U.S. War Council and was also a member of Troop 1, First Cavalry, New York National Guard. He was the recipient of the National Red Feather Award of the Community Chests and Councils of America in 1951 and of the Chancellor's Medal of the University of Buffalo in 1960. In 1959 Hamilton College conferred an honorary L.H.D. degree upon his and Webber College an honorary Litt.D. degree. He was a member of Sigma Phi, the Buffalo Club, the Buffalo Country Club and the Cherry Hill Club, Ridgeway, Ontario, Canada. His religious affiliation was with the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, which he served as an elder and a trustee. Politically he was a Republican. He found relaxation in painting in oils and in playing golf.

"Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking" (1953) was used as a textbook in colleges, had several editions, and was translated into five foreign languages.
(Review) Comment by Karl Albrecht in "Brain Power" : Well-known and bit overrated, but an excellent treatment of Osborn's technique of brainstorming. This book has probably had more influence than any other has in stimulation interest in idea production among professional people in business organizations.
Comment by James Adams in "Conceptual Blockbusting": Discusses not only brainstorming but also Osborn's thinking about creativity. It is written in an expansive, early 1950's style and tends to reference opinion rather than science, but it strikes a responsive chord in some readers. It was quite influential, as was Osborn himself in the upsurge in the study of creativity in the 1950s.

 Your Creative Power (1948)

Other books:
  • Short Course in Advertising (1921)
  • How to Think Up (1942)
  • Wake up Your Mind (1952)
  • The Goldmine Between Your Ears (1955)
  • How to Become More Creative (1964)

He also contributed articles to the Reader's Digest, the Christian Herald, and other publications.
Alex Osborn's father, John Osborn, was an accountant of somewhat modest means. The family lived in a house 25 feet wide, but they had a bathroom - and "even a furnace." Compared to some of the neighbors, they lived "in luxury." From the young boy's perspective, his father "always made ends meet but could build no nest egg." Since his job depended on politics, they were continually fraught with fear lest he be ousted. "The possibility of the poorhouse was seldom out of our minds."

The sense of insecurity no doubt left an indelible impression on the young Osborn. Well over 50 years later, in a book he wrote on creativity, Your Creative Power, he was able to recall something that had happened when he was six years old. Apparently, he was awakened one night by his mother and father talking in another room. It seems his father was about to lose his job and had not saved enough money to live on for more than a few months. His father told his mother he was worried about her and the kids. Eventually, the parents went to sleep, but the boy stayed awake, until about four in the morning. Little Alex then went to his mom and dad's bedroom, woke them up, and in a confident voice said, "I heard you and Mama talking, and I couldn't get back to sleep. Don't worry about money. Remember that box of pencils you gave me last Christmas? I still have them, and I'll go down on the corner and sell them for five cents apiece-so we will be all right."