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Beggars of Life: A Hobo Autobiography
by
Jim Tully
"Beggars of Life was first published in 1924. It holds up remarkably well because Jim Tully was one of the founders of the spare, gritty unsentimental style that became known as "hardboiled" (of which Dashiell Hammett was the best known practitioner)." "Tully's father was a ditchdigger, his mother died when he was very young, and he spent several years in an orphanage. By
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Community Reviews
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Very entertaining book that was written in the 1920's. Jim Tully's life as a hobo and his adventures as he travels all over the world hopping on trains, hiding from police, and occasionally resorting to violence in order to get away. Dealing with starvation, begging for money, getting drunk, and meeting other very interesting characters. People he meets get into street fights, knife fights, and even die brutal death's trying to get on the trains. Stealing books and cruising the open country on a
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I actually have an original 1924 version of this book! (yes, just had to say)
This is one of my all time favorite books. I love reading about the old hobo lifestyle and this is one of the best books on the subject.
The book can be enjoyed from multiple perspectives. It's just a good adventure yarn, with tight prose and a gritty atmosphere. It's also fascinating as a historical account of America.
On both levels and others, I love this book.
This is one of my all time favorite books. I love reading about the old hobo lifestyle and this is one of the best books on the subject.
The book can be enjoyed from multiple perspectives. It's just a good adventure yarn, with tight prose and a gritty atmosphere. It's also fascinating as a historical account of America.
On both levels and others, I love this book.
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"Tramping in the wild and windy places, without money, food, or shelter, was better for me than supinely bowing to any conventional decree of fate. The road gave me one jewel beyond price, the leisure to read and dream. If it made me old and wearily wise at twenty, it gave me for companions the great minds of all the ages, who talked to me with royal words."
"A kind heart is a sad heritage of which all the ills of life do not rob a person."
"A kind heart is a sad heritage of which all the ills of life do not rob a person."
I am a big fan of the Hobo literature - especially autobiographical works. The publisher is Nabat Books. They specialize in "reprinting forgotten memoirs". I really liked another of their books about riding the rails called You Can't Win by Jack Black.
The writing by Jim Tully about his adventures on the rails is great stuff. Combined with hair raising, first person accounts of mishaps, mayhem and murder, it makes the book a first rate read.
The writing by Jim Tully about his adventures on the rails is great stuff. Combined with hair raising, first person accounts of mishaps, mayhem and murder, it makes the book a first rate read.
I've heard about this writer and this particular book for decades. Many people described him as a writer of Hemingway's power and depth who never got his due. I truly enjoyed this book and the true life tales of " hoboes" and the just plain transient and desperate struck closer to home these days when jobs are scarce and the right wants to destroy the safety net while the gap between rich and poor becomes a Grand Canyon. But for me the main interest and satisfaction in the book is from its histo
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Aug 14, 2011
Iain
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
auto-biographical
,
non-fiction-historical
Better known for his biography of Chaplin (Chaplin sued for 1/2m dollars and lost - this book is dedicated partly to him) and his first novel "Emmett Lawler" (which started as a 100,000 word paragraph, no-one had taught him punctuation), this book was the first of Tully's autobiographical sequence of books, his "Underworld Edition" (with "Shanty Irish", "Circus Parade", "Shadows of Men" and "Blood on the Moon" following) and tells of his early life as a youth deciding to see the world, riding th
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For thesis research...
Not much to use here for my thesis. Oh, that's right, I'm done with my thesis... Yes, but I am continuing the research as I'm converting my thesis into a nonfiction book on The American Road Novel. But who cares about this? Back to the book. 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 o ...more
Not much to use here for my thesis. Oh, that's right, I'm done with my thesis... Yes, but I am continuing the research as I'm converting my thesis into a nonfiction book on The American Road Novel. But who cares about this? Back to the book. 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 o ...more
it's a hobo memoir, so it's mostly about hobo stuff (trains, talking to other hobos, stating and re-stating one's defiant commitment to the hobo lifestyle, pursuit of warm nutritious meals). (side note: hobos might outpace rappers in terms of their solitary focus on articulating the virtues of their chosen lifestyle and their own individual excellence at being about said life).
but actually beyond the hobo genrematic conventions, this was a really good and lovely read. exceedingly beautiful and e ...more
but actually beyond the hobo genrematic conventions, this was a really good and lovely read. exceedingly beautiful and e ...more
Somewhere between a B and C for readability... I found the book really hard to get into, but that is more a simple matter of personality differences, than of bad writing though. Tully as a hobo applies his own lens to the world around him, though I think it was more like a welding lens...
Riding the rails out of desperation but with a poetic eye for scenes and circumstances. Like On The Road? You'll like this beatnic account of being down and out in the early 1920s.
Really anything about crime or hobo lifestyles by AK Press is fascinating. I have never been let down.
rad classic hobo bio. a little travelin, a little honest work and a little crime thrown in for good measure.
Funny and fascinating hobo autobiography by occasional writer for Charlie Chaplin.
Tops! episode upon episode, un auter monde, la vie sur a la rue hobo argot galore
This is an invaluable account of hobo life in the 1920s.
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