Carl Brown Riddle

Carl Brown Riddle is known for College Men Without Money, first published in 1914. The book is less a traditional single-author narrative than a collected volume of firsthand and biographical accounts, brought together to show how students managed to reach college despite serious financial obstacles.

In the book's preface, Riddle explains that the idea grew out of his own experience of entering preparatory school and then college with almost no money. That personal starting point gives the book its clear, grounded tone: it is interested in effort, self-support, and the value of education rather than prestige.

Reliable biographical details about Riddle himself are scarce in the sources available here, so much of his life remains hard to confirm. What can be said with confidence is that his surviving reputation rests on this humane, motivating volume, which preserves a snapshot of educational ambition in the early 1900s.