Alger, Horatio, Jr. | Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger's most famous book

The Passion of American Collectors: Property of Barbara and Ira Lipman

Alger, Horatio, Jr.

Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks. Boston: Loring, [1868]

8vo (175 x 111 mm). Additional illustrated title and 3 plates; scattered foxing, some marginal dampstaining. Publisher's green cloth, spine stamped in gilt, covers in blind; rubbed, spine and edges worn. Half green morocco gilt slipcase, chemise. 

First edition.

Ragged Dick was serialized in Student and Schoolmate during 1867 and enlarged before appearing in book form. The book established Alger's reputation. It was written to draw attention to the vagrant children in New York at the time and contains information gleaned from the boys themselves as well as contemporary descriptions of the streets and buildings of the city.

REFERENCE

Blanck, Peter Parley to Penrod 29; Gardner 103 (suggesting that no more than a dozen copies have survived); Grolier, American 75