From the 1860's through the 1890s, Horatio Alger wrote hundreds of novels to teach young boys the merits of honesty, hard work, and cheerfulness in the face of adversity. As Carl Bode points out in his introduction, Horatio Alger filled a void in American literature and met scant competition both in the nature and the number of his works. Like his heroes, Alger rose to the top by chance, coincidence, and hard work.
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 repsonded 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. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward (Penguin Classics)

Literature & Fiction

ALGER, JR., HORATIO

Bode, Carl

United States

Penguin Publishing Group

Mencken the poet . Mencken the yearling reporter ... Mencken the short-story writer ... Mencken the author of that astringent, abortive book The American. These are largely unknown Menckens, hidden in his younger yearsand covered with with the inevitable debris that the passing decades bring. Yet thereis a timeliness, as well as a novelty for us, in much that he wrote during his most ebullient period.The best that he wrote is surely worth reviving, whether it is by an unknown Mencken or by a Mencken we know, such as the witty, opinionated critic or the raucous disturber of the peace. In a sense nearly everything in the pages that follow is fresh, has not appeared in a book before -from the initial poem, first printed inthe summer of 1896 when he was a schoolboy, to the final essay, which went into type in the autumn of 1917 when he had reached the peak of his powers. He reworked a few of these texts afterward,for "The Sahara of the Bozart" for instance,  and unquestionably made improvements.But what we have here are preeminently the first fruits.Today we have worn thin the word 'relevance," yet much of what Mencken published then is relevant now. The tides are running his way again. His very prejudices look current ; his essential attitudes pulse with new life. What he asserts in The American in particular is what the ghetto militant is asserting, with the difference that Mencken's weapon is wit while the militant'sis shock rhetoric. The fact is that Mencken has a message for us. But there is moreto it than that. Beyond the timeliness and relevance lies some superb reading for its own sake. Mencken writes like a combination of angel and baggy-pants comic. Even his early work shows the flavor of his brash, brilliant personality. He began as a reporter, so some of that work is reportage ; but he grew into the best journalist who ever hunched over a typewriter. And here wecan watch him growing.

Young Mencken

DOUBLEDAY

A concise survey of the historical development, people, and attractions of Maryland

Maryland: A Bicentennial History (States and the Nation)

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Maryland: A Bicentennial History

W.W.Norton&Company

This book explores the broad educational impact of the lyceum movement in the nineteenth century.

The American Lyceum: Town Meeting of the Mind

History

Americas

Southern Illinois University Press

Mencken

This is the first biography since his death of the man Edmund Wilson has called the greatest practicing literary journalist” since Poe. It is also the first fully documented life to be issued. Mr. Bode has based his book on a host of Mencken letters, many unpublished; on family papers; on a variety of Mencken materials in print and out; and on many taped interviews with remaining friends of Mencken as well as with some of his old enemies. Two other things about the book are important firsts.” The book analyzes Mencken’s writing as it related to his life. And the book indicates the relation of Mencken to his time Mr Bode’s Mencken takes us from the almost pastoral Baltimore of the 1880’s when Mencken was a boy; through World War I when Mencken was termed a traitor; into the Roaring Twenties when he was the decade’s leading intellectual, magazine editor, and newspaper man; into the Depression when his influence sank to nearly nothing; then into the 1940’s when he issued his mellow reminiscences; and finally to his last years in Baltimore. Among the chapters are: Daily and Sunday,” Dreiser and the Fruits of Dissidence,” The Mercury: Mencken’s Mind and Art,” Mainstay of the Sun,” Mencken, Darwin, and God,” Mencken in Love,” The Circus of Dr. R.,” and Friends and Familiars.”

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Antebellum Culture

&ldquo;The general reader will find this book fascinating, and it can be used with profit by the teacher of a course in the Middle Period of American history.&rdquo;&mdash;American Historical Review

This is the first biography since his death of the man Edmund Wilson has called the greatest practicing literary journalist” since Poe. It is also the first fully documented life to be issued. Mr. Bode has based his book on a host of Mencken letters, many unpublished; on family papers; on a variety of Mencken materials in print and out; and on many taped interviews with remaining friends of Mencken as well as with some of his old enemies. Two other things about the book are important firsts.” The book analyzes Mencken’s writing as it related to his life. And the book indicates the relation of Mencken to his time Mr Bode’s Mencken takes us from the almost pastoral Baltimore of the 1880’s when Mencken was a boy; through World War I when Mencken was termed a traitor; into the Roaring Twenties when he was the decade’s leading intel­lectual, magazine editor, and newspaper man; into the Depression when his influence sank to nearly nothing; then into the 1940’s when he issued his mellow reminiscences; and finally to his last years in Baltimore. Among the chapters are: Daily and Sunday,” Dreiser and the Fruits of Dissidence,” The Mercury: Mencken’s Mind and Art,” Mainstay of the Sun,” Mencken, Darwin, and God,” Mencken in Love,” The Circus of Dr. R.,” and Friends and Familiars.”

The story of one of the landmark censorship trials of the 20th century.

The Editor, the Bluenose, and the Prostitute: History of the Hatrack Censorship Case

Roberts Rinehart

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bode, Carl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bode, Carl

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bode, Carl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward (Penguin Classics)

Young Mencken

Maryland: A Bicentennial History (States and the Nation)

Maryland: A Bicentennial History

The American Lyceum: Town Meeting of the Mind

Mencken

Antebellum Culture

Antebellum Culture

Mencken

The Editor, the Bluenose, and the Prostitute: History of the Hatrack Censorship Case