Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Black and Risen from the Ranks; or, Harry Walton's Success

In Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger’s most successful book, Alger codified the basic formula he would follow in nearly a hundred subsequent novels for boys: a young hero, inexperienced in the temptations of the city but morally armed to resist them, is unexpectedly forced to earn a livelihood. The hero’s exemplary struggle — to retain his virtue, to clear his name of accusations, and to gain economic independence — was the basis of the Alger plot. Hugely popular at the turn of the twentieth century, Alger’s works have at different times been framed as a model for the “American dream” and as dangerously exciting sensationalism for young readers; Gary Scharnhorst’s new introduction separates the myth of Alger as “success ideologue” from the more complex messages conveyed in his work.

Ragged Dick is paired in this edition with Risen from the Ranks, another coming-of-age story of a young man achieving respectability. Historical appendices include extensive contemporary reviews, material on the “success myth” associated with Alger, and parodies of Alger’s work.

Gary Scharnhorst is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at the University of New Mexico, editor of American Literary Realism, editor in alternating years of American Literary Scholarship, and general editor of the “Studies in American Literary Realism and Naturalism” monograph series issued by the University of Alabama Press. A former chair of the American Literature Section of the Modern Language Association and former president of the Western Literature Association, he is also the co-author, with Jack Bales, of The Lost Life of Horatio Alger, Jr. (1985).