Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832-1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty, starting with Ragged Dick in 1868. [Critics point out that hard work itself does not rescue the boy from his fate, but rather some extraordinary act of bravery or honesty, which brings him into contact with a wealthy benefactor.] In the last decades of the 19th century, Alger"s moral tone coarsened, and violence, murder, and other sensational themes entered his works.