"Student and Schoolmate" reported in its February 1867 issue that the first installment of "Ragged Dick" "has created no little excitement among our numerous readers, as we supposed it would. Everybody is delighted." Scharnhorst observes that the "Providence Evening Press", the "Boston Transcript", "The Christian Register", and the "Monthly Religious Magazine" praised the story, describing it as "simply charming", "excellent", and "spirited and inspiring". According to Scharnhorst, Booth Tarkington acknowledged the book as one of ten that made the "greatest impression on his life", and in 1947 "the Grolier Club of New York selected it as one of the hundred most influential American books published before 1900."