Self-made man

James Perkins Tracy wrote popular juvenile fiction under the pen name "A Self-Made Man." Library and archival records for Fame and Fortune Weekly identify that pseudonym with Tracy, and surviving editions credit him with a long run of stories for publisher Frank Tousey.

His books and serials often follow resourceful boys trying to make their way in Wall Street, business, publishing, or other high-pressure worlds. Titles such as Hard to Beat; or, The Cleverest Boy in Wall Street, Winning His Way; or, The Youngest Editor in Green River, and Dick Dalton, the Young Banker show the blend of speed, optimism, and commercial adventure that made dime novels so widely read.

Tracy appears to have been especially associated with the success-story formula suggested by his pen name itself: self-reliance, nerve, and a chance to get ahead. While detailed biographical information about his life is hard to confirm from the sources I found, his fiction survives as a vivid example of the era's mass-market storytelling for young readers.