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

Author Horatio Alger

Introduction by Michael Meyer

Afterword by Bryan Waterman

Mass Market Paperback

$5.95 US

Berkley / NAL | Signet

4.17"W x 6.75"H x 0.51"D (10.6 x 17.1 x 1.3 cm) | 4 oz (119 g) | 88 per carton

On sale Jul 01, 2014 | 208 Pages | 9780451469595

Grades 6-12 + AP/IB

Sales rights: World

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In this classic rags-to-riches tale, discover the exhilarating story of one boy’s metamorphosis from a street urchin in New York City to a handsome, self-respecting gentlemen.

Part coming of age tale and part adventure novel, Ragged Dick is the story of a fast-talking, plucky street boy who gambles, smokes, and has no formal education. But Dick is also hardworking, striving not for wealth and status, but for a steady job, a decent place to sleep, and respectability.

Set amidst the drama and perils of growing up as an outcast in the gritty underbelly of NYC, this novel illustrates the courage, tenacity, and resilience of one young boy who, in the face of adversity, aims to pull himself up by his bootstraps and persevere.

With an Introduction by Michael Meyer
and a New Afterword by Bryan Waterman

“[For] thrilling adventures...go for…Horatio Alger’s books.”—Boston Herald

Horatio Alger, Jr. was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1832, the son of a Unitarian minister. He received a strict upbringing and was educated for a life in the church, graduating from Harvard in 1852. After leaving Harvard, Alger, to his father's disappointment, took a job as a historian in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and later worked as a teacher at a boys' boarding school in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. He traveled in Europe for a year, and then returned to the United States in 1857 to complete his studies at the Harvard Divinity School. In 1864, Alger was ordained a minister at the First Parish Unitarian Church of Brewster on Cape Cod. Sixteen months later, however, he was dismissed from the pulpit after being accused of engaging in homosexual relations with two boys. After his dismissal, Alger began to focus on his writing career, which spanned more than three decades and 110 books. He wrote mainly children's books about boys and girls who rise from rags to riches through hard work and faith in the American dream. His first major success came with the publication of his eighth novel, Ragged Dick, in 1868. Other popular novels include Luck and Pluck (1869), Tattered Tom (1871), and Strive and Succeed (1872). Alger also wrote several adult novels, including A Fancy of Hers (first published as The New Schoolma'am in 1877) and The Disagreeable Woman (1895). Alger, who never married, spent the last decades of his life living at his family home in South Natick, Massachusetts, where he died in 1899. View titles by Horatio Alger

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

Classroom-based guides appropriate for schools and colleges provide pre-reading and classroom activities, discussion questions connected to the curriculum, further reading, and resources.

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