What is Ragged Dick?
{{italic title}} {{infobox book | name = Ragged Dick | image = Ragged Deick Illustration 1868.JPG | caption = Illustration from the first edition | title_orig = Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks | author = [[Horatio Alger, Jr.]] | country = United States | language = English | series = [[Ragged Dick Series]] | genre = Boys' book | publisher = A. K. Loring | release_date = May 5, 1868 | media_type = Print | followed_by = [[Fame and Fortune]] }} '''''Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks''''' is a boys' book by [[Horatio Alger, Jr.]] It was published in parts (serialization) in the [[magazine]] ''Student and Schoolmate'' in 1867. It was then published as a book in 1868 by A. K. Loring of [[Boston, Massachusetts]]. It was the first of six books in the ''Ragged Dick'' series. It was Alger's bestselling book.<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Scharnhorst| first1 = Gary| last2 = Bales| first2 = Jack| title = The Lost Life of Horatio Alger, Jr| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZADoAAAACAAJ| year = 1985| publisher = Indiana University Press| isbn = 978-0-253-20648-0| pages = 81–7 }}</ref> ==Story== Ragged Dick is a poor bootblack (shoe shine boy) in New York City. He makes his life better by working hard and being honest. He opens a bank account and takes a frail boy named Fosdick into his little apartment. Fosdick teaches Dick to read, write, and do arithmetic. One day, Dick saves a rich man's child from drowning. He is rewarded with money and a clerk's job in the man's firm. ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:1860s books]] [[Category:Books by Horatio Alger, Jr.]] [[Category:Books first published in serial form]] [[Category:American children's books]] [[Category:American novels]] {{lit-stub}}