A ---- rags-to-riches story
September 24, 2014 11:57 AM

I'm blanking on the name of this writer. Early 20th century NYC, wrote rags-to-riches stories. IIRC he had some Damon Runyon-esque elements (character names, people not being 100% on the level) and his stories had twists similar to O. Henry. I've heard his name used as a shorthand for these kinds of stories, but I'm having a mental block about his name or anything specifically that he wrote. Help?
posted by pxe2000 to Media & Arts (3 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
Horatio Alger
posted by decathecting at 11:59 AM on September 24, 2014


Since decathecting beat me to it, I will instead offer a sample of Alger's writing, the story "Ragged Dick, Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks" offered here for free from Project Gutenberg.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:29 PM on September 24, 2014


If you're into this sort of thing, another contender at the time was Oliver Optic.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:20 PM on September 24, 2014


« Older Them old consulting blues   |   Can MeFites become presidents? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.