Ragged Dick round-up

February 14, 2011 in Writing New York by Bryan | 1 comment

I’m lecturing this morning in Writing New York on Horatio Alger’s 1868 novel Ragged Dick, the prototypical pull-yourself-up/luck-and-pluck boy book about a boot black who makes good. It may be appropriate, then, that I woke up, post-Grammys, having had a nightmare that Justin Bieber was filming a new 3D musical adaptation of the novel. Though isn’t that what his movie is essentially supposed to be anyway? And hasn’t it already been done? To wit:

For other Ragged Dick-related posts, click here and here.

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1 comment

  1. Lenora’s avatar

    Lenora on February 16, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    I like “The World Will Know” but I would because I tend to like the Marxist stuff. Newises is an interesting movie for this course, not because it’s particularly good (although it’s family guilty pleasure), but because it’s bridge between Ragged Dick and Maggie. It doesn’t quite get to the horror of child labor but that montage towards the end when they’re going around to factories and whatnot trying to get other child laborers interested in unionizing is an interesting moment because undoes a little of that newsboy romance.

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