Ragged Dick and Risen from the Ranks
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…
The Erie Train Boy
From the publication of Ragged Dick in 1867 through to the 1930s, Horatio Alger’s tales of young boys overcoming adversity were part of the mainstream of American culture. The phrase “a Horatio Alger story” remains synonymous with the American ideal of struggling against adversity and finally achieving success, financial and otherwise—but especially financial. As Michael…
American Literature
AMERICAN LITERATURE The Autobiography of Ashley Bowen (1728-1813) The Female American, Second Edition (1767) Unca Eliza Winkfield Common Sense (1776) Thomas Paine Rights of Man (1791) Thomas Paine The Age of Reason (1794) Thomas Paine Emma Corbett (1781) Samuel Jackson Pratt Letters from an American Farmer: Selections (1782) Hector St. John De Crèvecoeur (BAAL Edition) The…