The Telegraph Boy (Tattered Tom Second Series)

Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, Publisher, 1879. Preface and copyright dated 1879. Brown cloth boards, embossed fruit and floral cover design and w/ornate spine titles on gilded fields, moderate wear, rub. Pages very good. Smooth brown endpapers. Frontispiece drawing of Frank, the telegraph boy, behind tissue guard. Bind good; frt., bk. hinges reinforced. Rare, classic bookcraft. Tale of a penniless boy who finds a job as a telegram messenger boy. The "Telegraph Boy" completes the series of street-life tales in New York; inaugurated eleven years prior with the publication of "Ragged Dick." Horatio Alger had reason to feel gratified by the warm reception accorded these pictures of humble life in the great metropolis. He was even more gratified by the assurance that his labors had awakened a philanthropic interest in the children whose struggles he endeavored faithfully to describe. Alger was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many young-adult fiction 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. His writings were characterized by the "rags to riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on America during the Gilded Age. 263 pages. Insured post.. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. Book.