The Story of a Bad Boy

In 1869 Thomas Bailey Aldrich introduced to American literature the original “bad boy”—that all-American boy who plays harmless pranks, devises exciting adventures, has an occasional bout of love-sickness, is bored on Sundays, and is well-liked by almost everyone. Later followed by Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Story of a Bad Boy—once called the first truly American novel—is Aldrich’s partially autobiographical tale of growing up in Am...