Ragged Dick

First printed in installments in 1867 in the Schoolmate, a magazine for young readers, this story was later expanded and revised before appearing as a book. It follows a street boy in New York City who shines shoes for a living, and it is meant to be the first book in a series about the lives of homeless children, whose numbers in New York and other cities had grown into the thousands.

The author drew several of the characters from real people, relying on his own observations and on conversations with the boys themselves. He also thanks the superintendent of the Newsboys' Lodging House on Fulton Street for some of the facts used in the book.

The author notes that a few anachronisms appear in the story. He kept them because they help the plot along, and he does not claim the modest book is strictly accurate as history.