Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward

The hero of ‘Ragged Dick’ is a veritable ‘diamond in the rough’-as innately virtuous as he is streetwise and cocky. Immediately popular with young readers, the novel also appealed to parents, who responded to its colorful espousal of the Protestant ethic. ‘Struggling Upward’ published nearly thirty years later, followed the same time-tested formulas, and despite critical indifference it, too, had mass appeal.