The Lives And Extraordinary Adventures Of Fifteen Tramp Writers From The Golden Age Of Vagabondage

(Paperback)

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The combined events of the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the first transcontinental railroad opening in 1869, and the financial crash of 1873, found large numbers - including thousands of former soldiers well used to an outdoor life and tramping - thrown into a transient life and forced to roam the continent, surviving on whatever resources came to hand. For most, the life of the hobo was born out of necessity. For a few it became a lifestyle choice. Some of the latter group committed their adventures to print, both autobiographical and fictional, and together with their British and Irish counterparts, whose wanderlust was fuelled by an altogether different genesis, they account for the fifteen tramp writers whose stories and ideas are the subject of this book.

Reviews

The present terms of the lockdown make it tough times for any kind of tramp, defined by the sociologist Ben Reitman a century ago as "a man who doesn't work, who apparently doesn't want to work, who lives without working and who is constantly traveling". Reitman, best known as the companion of the anarchist Emma Goldman, was himself a former hobo, a category he separated from tramping: "A hobo is a non-skilled, non-employed labourer without money, looking for work". Both are removed from the bum, who "begs or earns a few pennies a day. He is usually inebriate".
These distinctions are quoted in Ian Cutler's enjoyable new book, The Lives and Extraordinary Adventures of Fifteen Tramp Writers. His subjects include some who will be known to readers - Morley Roberts, Jack London, W. H. Davies, Jack Black - and others whose stories are less familiar, including the only female tramp in the cast, the long-lived Kathleen Phelan (1917-2014). According to Mr Cutler, she "out-tramped all of the male vagabonds" in the book, having spent "77 of her 97 years living on the road. -- (London) Times Literary Supplement

Author Bio

Ian Cutler lives in Cardiff, UK, with his wife, the Angela. He is author of Cynicism from Diogenes to Dilbert, McFarland & Co., Inc., 2005, and essays in various philosophy journals. Ian retired as a director of adult social services in 2012 and now spends his time writing, blogging and campaigning against miscarriages of justice of autistic adults.