Ragged Dick: or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks-Fast Shipping

Description

“[Alger] was an utterly American artist . . . and the truth of his books is the truthof the power of the wish. . . . Alger was perhaps American capitalism’s greatestand most effective propagandist.”–Richard Wright

Introduction by David K. Shipler

Written to inspire schoolboys to strive for “honesty, industry, frugality, and aworthy ambition,” the novels of Horatio Alger (1832-99) are infused with great humanity,broad humor, and a surprisingly sophisticated view of Gilded Age propriety.

Centralto Alger’s philosophy is the notion that heroes like Ragged Dick, a poor boot-black,manage to get ahead by dint of hard work, resourcefulness, luck, pluck, and fairplay.

Alger’s upwardly mobile heroes have become paragons of middle-class comfortand moral standing, and their journeys from rags to respectability have long beenviewed as the very embodiment of the American Dream.

In this Modern Library PaperbackClassic, the text of Ragged Dick is set from the first American book edition of a Modern Library Reading Group Guide.