Ragged Dick

By Horatio Alger, Jr.

Subjects: Boys, Fiction, coming of age, Shoe shiners, Fiction, general, Poor children, Children's stories, Shoe shiners--fiction, Friendship in fiction, Boys in fiction, Self-culture, Street children, Homeless youth, Youth, Diligence, Orphans in fiction, Poor children in fiction, Boys--fiction, Fiction, American fiction (fictional works by one author), Poor children--fiction, Street children--fiction, Social life and customs, Street children in fiction, Orphans, Shoe shiners in fiction, Conduct of life in fiction, Conduct of life, Fiction, short stories (single author), Juvenile fiction, City and town life, History, Hotels, New york (n.y.), fiction, 813/.4, Ps1029.a3 a6 1985, Success, Friendship

Description: "Ragged Dick" was contributed as a serial story to the pages of the Schoolmate, a well-known juvenile magazine, during the year 1867. While in course of publication, it was received with so many evidences of favor that it has been rewritten and considerably enlarged, and is presented to the public as the first volume of a series intended to illustrate the life and experiences of the friendless and vagrant children who are now numbered by thousands in New York and other cities.Several characters in the story are sketched from life. The necessary information has been gathered mainly from personal observation and conversations with the boys themselves. The author is indebted also to the excellent Superintendent of the Newsboys' Lodging House, in Fulton Street, for some facts of which he has been able to make use. Some anachronisms may be noted. Wherever they occur, they have been admitted, as aiding in the development of the story, and will probably be considered as of little importance in an unpretending volume, which does not aspire to strict historical accuracy.