Horatio Alger was a late 19th century author; he wrote books for kids about the American dream. Alger's books seemed to date back to older times, when the American dream was very different from that of his day. He adhered to thoughts of morality, individualism, and competence; but it maintains the contemporary idea of ​​fertility. Alger wrote many books to encourage young boys to be moral and work hard. One of Horatio Alger's books was titled Ragged Dick or Street Life in New York, this book featured a young black boot named Dick Hunter and his friend Henry Fosdick. Dick initially lives on the streets and is never sure where he will sleep from one night to the next. He is quite happy but wishes to be respectable. One day he offers Mr. Whitney, a businessman, to show his nephew, Frank, New York City because Mr. Whitney is too busy to do it himself. After this day Dick's life begins to change from a shoe shiner with an uncertain life to a clerk who rents a room and earns ten dollars a week. The ideals Alger encourages are morality, individualism, and competence or earning enough to feel comfortable. give the rest to help the rest of mankind. Gilded Age businessmen didn't really adhere to these ideals, in fact the only one they adhered to was individualism. Individualism was the idea that a person should get rich on their own without any real help from others. Accepting charity was frowned upon, but acquiring loans and borrowing money or equipment for your business was okay. The idea of ​​individualism in Alger's book is seen in the way Dick pushes himself to learn to read and write under the tutelage of his friend Fosdick. This learning helps h... in the middle of paper... or in an accounting office. None of these works could be defined as fruitful. None of Alger's supporting characters were very fruitful either. Mr. Grayson and Mr. Whitney were both businessmen, and Mr. Rockwell, Dick's future employer, was a merchant. Not even the hero's closest companion, Fosdick, was fruitful. This was also not a priority for men of this age. The fact that finding fruitful work would be quite difficult may be why Alger did not include this ideal in his books of instruction and encouragement. Horatio Alger wrote several books to help kids be moral and succeed in an ever-changing world with questionable practices. These books were enormously popular because everyone wanted their children to succeed and be respected; although most of the fortunes of the time came from dubious practices.