Ragged Dick

Beauchamp discusses the success of Alger's Ragged Dick, and how after his success he writes many more books along the same theme as ragged dick: 'a poor but honest lad who, through grit, idunstry and some well deserved luck, pulls himself up from poverty and into middle class'.

John swansburg states that "industry, frugality, a penchant for self-improvement—which set him apart from the ne’er-do-wells and confidence men who populate his adventures in the streets of New York. But these attributes merely qualify the Alger hero for success; they don’t produce it."

Cara Erdheim talks of how “Alger traced the rise of his boy heroes from penury to middle-class respectability.”