Ragged Dick: Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks

Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832–99), the son of a Unitarian minister, was born in Massachusetts. After studying at Harvard, Alger pursued a career in the ministry before moving to New York City, where he began writing his successful books for boys such as Luck and Pluck, Tattered Tom, Phil the Fiddler, and Struggling Upward. His eighth novel, Ragged Dick, was his first of many bestsellers. Michael Meyer, Ph.D., is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut. Among his books, Several More Lives to Live: Thoreau’s Political Reputation in America was awarded the Ralph Henry Gabriel Prize by the American Studies Association. In addition to The Bedford Introduction to Literature, his edited volumes include Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings.Bryan Waterman is Associate Professor of English and American Literature at New York University and co-editor, with Cyrus R. K. Patell, of The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of New York City.