Author Description

This is the warm-hearted conclusion to the Ragged Dick, the story of a New York Boot-black. In this tale, the boy Ragged Dick, now Richard Hunter, continues "cultivating himself," again meets with a set of lucky circumstances and, in the end, meets with his Fame and Fortune (as the book's title indicates.) It's a nice little read, easily done and you will enjoy it for its simplicity and lack of complexity. Horatio Alger Jr. was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many young-adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on America during the Gilded Age.