Ralph Makes Good

From the back cover of the original hardcover edition: This is the heart-warming story of a typical American boy of forty who quits the farm and licks the big town. In the great American tradition of Horatio Alger, Jr., our hero rises from grass-cutter and leaf-raker to High Office, helped only by his innocence, his determination, and the grudging advice of a sagacious barber. Ralph enters politics during the leaf-raking off season and is unanimously elected Dogcatcher—by the only vote cast, his own. Taking office, he institutes wide-reaching (and expensive) reforms, only to discover that the city is ruled by the superlatively corrupt mayor, nefarious Knuckles Knugent, and his black-suited, blackjacked gang. Despite these overwhelming odds, Ralph triumphs over the forces of darkness, foils their fiendish plot to saturate the city with man-eating monster dogs, and survives the fury of a lynch mob to become Mayor by popular acclaim and win the love of a dance-hall cutie. Here, indeed, is a Success Story of the Sixties.