Ragged Dick
Excerpts from Ragged Dick, or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks
By Horatio Alger
Published in 1868
During the Gilded Age (the era of industrialization from the early 1860s to the turn of the century in which a few wealthy individuals gained tremendous power and influence), many Americans became fascinated by the possible riches that could be made in the new economy. The American dream—the belief that anyone willing to work could live in middle-class comfort in the United States—was expanded to include rags-to-riches stories in which Americans born into poverty could overcome their circumstances and become millionaires. In fact, many real success stories occurred during this time. Oil industrialist John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), steel businessman Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), and railroad executive Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877) had all been born in humble homes and yet went on to become some of the richest men in the nation. Novelist Horatio Alger Jr. (1834–1899) was one of the first writers to capture this rags-to-riches theme in fiction, and his dime novels for boys became so popular they were found in almost every American home in the late nineteenth century.
A former Unitarian minister from Massachusetts, Alger left the church and made his way to New York City in 1866.
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