Books in Ragged Dick Series series

Look at Ragged Dick through the lenses of 1860s New York and Alger's own life there. Ragged Dick is a fourteen-year-old bootblack – he smokes, drinks occasionally, and sleeps on the streets – but he is anxious "to turn over a new leaf, and try to grow up "'spectable". He won't steal under any circumstances, and many gentlemen who are impressed with this virtue (and his determination to succeed) offer their aid. Mr. Greyson, for example, invites him to church and Mr. Whitney gives him five dollars for performing a service. Dick uses the money to open a bank account and to rent his first apartment. He fattens his bank account by practicing frugality and is tutored by his roommate Fosdick in the three R's. When Dick rescues a drowning child, the grateful father rewards him with a new suit and a job in his mercantile firm. With this final event, Richard is "cut off from the old vagabond life which he hoped never to resume", and henceforth will call himself Richard Hunter, Esq.

Originally published in 1897, Mark the Match Boy; or Richard Hunter's Ward is one of Alger's formulaic juvenile novels, which are best remembered for the “rags-to-riches” theme they championed. In such stories, poor city boys rose in social status by working hard and being honest. In Mark the Match Boy; or Richard Hunter's Ward, Richard Hunter, now a successful and respectable New York businessman, becomes the patron of a poor runaway boy and starts him on the ladder of success.