Customer Reviews

Beggars of Life: A Hobo Autobiography

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In this account of his years on the road, Jim Tully achieved a perfect marriage of pared down prose and marginal subjects that launched his career as one of the best paid, most popular nonfiction writers in America at the time. With Beggars of Life it's not hard to see why Tully was so popular: this ostensibly simple story about hoboing both illuminates the early 20th century (entirely from the view of the reject and the freak and the "punkgrafter") and also manages to speak to the jaded, bored punks of today. It's a surprisingly wild read; race riots, deformities, violence, sex, drinking, cop-bashing, election-fixing, and corruption erupt throughout. But they are portrayed with such a simple elegance and detachment-- perhaps this is why it has fallen down one of the many memory holes our country reserves for dissenting work. The AK Press edition features a lively introduction by late pulp-legend Charles Willeford. As Willeford argues, Tully deserves to take his place beside Hemingway as a founder of the uniquely American, hard-boiled style of prose.

In this account of his years on the road, Jim Tully achieved a perfect marriage of pared down prose and marginal subjects that launched his career as one of the best paid, most popular nonfiction writers in America at the time. With Beggars of Life it's not hard to see why Tully was so popular: this ostensibly simple story about hoboing both illuminates the early 20th century (entirely from the view of the reject and the freak and the "punkgrafter") and also manages to speak to the jaded, bored punks of today. It's a surprisingly wild read; race riots, deformities, violence, sex, drinking, cop-bashing, election-fixing, and corruption erupt throughout. But they are portrayed with such a simple elegance and detachment-- perhaps this is why it has fallen down one of the many memory holes our country reserves for dissenting work. Scandalously long out of print and worth finding.

In this picaresque autobiography, Jim Tully takes us on a teen-aged hobo's ride through early-20th-century America. Set in the hobo jungles, freight cars, trainyards, flophouses and brothels from coast to shining coast, the author introduces us to victims of a society that has no use for them -- literally the great unwashed -- men and women whose morality is dictated by necessity (most notably, hunger). Frightening in part, but also touching, and at times damned funny, Tully gives us a fine portrait of a piece of Americana that no longer exists as such, but whose inhabitants have still not gone away. Though tame by today's literary standards (I doubt that it could have been published in 1924 had it been otherwise), no thinking reader's imagination will fail to fill in the gaps of this "hard-boiled" story. After you've read this book you will surely be anxious to read even more by Jim Tully.

Bought as a gift, special request and was glad to be able to find it at Amazon. Came in good time, as promised, in good condition.

Interesting historical perspective from the point of view of the disenfranchised working people in the 20's and 30's. It showed me how the economic crash and the government's approach in dealing with it caused widespread reactionism. I saw the closest approach to validate Communism in US history. It raised some of the first strong movements toward socialism, anarchy, crime, free love and the daily adventures of the "everyman" brotherhood of the road.

There's some good anecdotal stories here but not much for plot; the chapters are snapshots of a life on the rods tied up in the end with a bit of socio-cultural commentary. What's most interesting about this book is the fact it's been out of print for decades and this publisher (Nabat) has spent time researching the archives of the Library of Congress to find books of this nature and republish them (i.e. You Can't Win by Jack Black - highly recommended). A publisher myself, and very interested in American history-culture-society, this strategy appeals to me.

Beggars of Life is the most famous Tully book, but I like Circus Parade even better. If you see a used copy - grab it.