Carl Brown Riddle

Carl Brown Riddle is known for College Men Without Money, first published in 1914. Sources available online consistently connect him with that book, and the text itself presents him as C. B. Riddle, the editor and compiler of a collection built from first-person accounts of students and graduates who financed their own education.

The book’s preface explains the idea behind it in personal terms: Riddle says he entered preparatory school with 94 cents and college with even less, then set out to gather examples of people who had done the same. Some of the material was first used in the Raleigh Times before being expanded into book form, which helps place him in a North Carolina context and shows his interest in making higher education feel possible for readers with limited means.

Very little firmly sourced biographical information about Riddle appears in the reliable, openly accessible pages found here beyond his authorship and editorial work on this volume. What does come through clearly is his purpose: he wanted practical, encouraging stories rather than abstract advice, and that straightforward, hopeful approach remains the most memorable part of his legacy.