Hobo Bibliography

Ehrman, Mark. 1991. A Tradition Rides "the Westbound". Los Angeles Times, August 27, E/1.

A feature about the National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa.

Eichenlaub, G.E. Hobo's Traverse

Eighner, Lars. 1993. Travels with Lizbeth. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Eighner's personal account of his travels with his dog Lizbeth (predominantly hitchhiking and walking). It provides insight into the aspects of homeless life, temporary living arrangements, unemployment, canine companionship, male homosexuality, dumpster diving, alcohol, drugs, insanity, and writing as a profession. [see Bragg 1993].

Eisley, Loren. 1975. All the Strange Hours: The Excavation of Life. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 273 pages: illustrations.

A memoir of the 1930s by a later rather famous scientist and writer.

Elam, Samuel Milton. 1930. Lady Hoboes. New Republic, January 1, pp. 164-69.

In this narrative with dialogue, Elam tells of his personal acquaintance and experiences with five ladies of the road: (1) an unidentified woman on the Southern Pacific, (2-3) Daisy and Moll, two once-were reform school girls turned hobo with the help of Ding Lewis, (4) a woman named Mary, approximately fifty years of age, with a knack for soliciting and receiving hand-outs, and (5) Sal Harper, as told by Frisco Pete.

Etulain, Richard, editor. 1977. Jack London on the Road: The Tramp Diary and other Hobo Writings. Logan: Utah State University Press, 209 pages. Includes two leaves of plates, illustrations, and bibliographical references.

Facciolo, Jay. 1977. The Wobs and the Bos: The IWW and the Hobo. unpublished masters thesis, Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Fendelman, Helaine. 1975. Tramp Art: An Itinerant's Folk Art. E.P. Dutton. New York.

Ferguson, Sarah. 1994. "Meet the Crusties", Esquire. January, pp. 68-75.

One of the first mainstream media descriptions of the emerging early 1990s breed of crusty punk/anarchist train riders. The article focuses on Dumpy, an influential personality of this era. Based on their pre-CCG travels in the summer of 1993. See also (Powers 1994). Available online.

Fletcher, Ben. 2006. The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly. Charles H. Kerr, Chicago

A collection of writings by a well-known African-American Wobbly organizer, Benjamin Fletcher (1890-1949), edited by Peter Cole and including some biographical notes on Fletcher. Published for the first time in 2006 by Charles Kerr.

Flynt, Josiah. Note: Author's proper full name is Josiah Flynt Willard but he mostly published, and is known/cited as, Josiah Flynt.

---. 1894. "The Tramp at Home". The Century. February. pp. 517-26.

---. 1894b. "Old Boston Mary: A Remembrance". The Atlantic. September, pp. 318-25.

---. 1895. "How Men Become Tramps". The Century. volume 50. issue 6. pp. 941-45.

---. 1896. "Children of the Road". Atlantic Monthly. January. pp. 56 - 71.

---. 1899. "The Tramp and the Railroads". The Century. volume 58, issue 2. June. pp. 258-66.

This article concentrates on a tramp's primary means of transportation: the railroads. Flynt gives an account of a conversation he had with a railroad executive about the tramp "problem". He also goes into detail about the centrality of rail-riding in a tramp's day-to-day life.

---. 1899. Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life. New York: Century Company. Reprinted 1972, Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith Publishing Corp. Reprinted in paperback 2016. Available online.

There are various publication dates for this book, ranging from 1899 to 1907, probably due to it being revised and reissued by Century.

---. 1900. "Homosexuality among tramps." in Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol. 2. by Havelock Ellis. London. University Press Limited. Appendix A.

Flynt contributed an appendix to this book by Ellis which focused on "sexual inversion" as it was known at the time.

---. 1902. The Little Brother: A Story of Tramp Life. New York. The Century Co., 254 pp. Reprinted in 1968 by The Gregg Press. Upper Saddle River, NJ.

"This novel is a bit Victorian in style, but it does have some fairly specific descriptions of the east coast and Midwestern tramp/hobo subculture, particularly regarding the institution of "jockers and prushins" and how young boys would be lured onto the road, eventually to be "emancipated" to become full-fledged tramps. For the truly dedicated scholar of hobohemia". -D.L.

---. 1908. My Life. New York: The Outing Publishing Co.

This is Flynt's autobiography, detailing his adventures hoboing around the US and in Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was unfinished at the time of his death in 1907 at age 37 but was published a year later with a posthumous introduction by Arthur Symmons and afterward by Bannister Merwin, which add insight into his later years. Can be read or downloaded.

For Hoboes: Hobo News, 1937, Time, May 17, pp. 67-69.

Short account of Ben Benson's almost-incarceration by the New York City Police department for selling the Hobo News — a magazine the police thought to be a hoax and a money making scam. Brief description about the Hobo News is provided.

---. 1997. The Great Labor Uprising of 1877. New York: Pathfinder Press.

Outlines the Railroad Strike of 1877 and how this first generalized strike of U.S. workers spread across the entire country.

Foner, Phillip. 1947. Jack London: American Rebel, New York: Citadel Press. Reprinted 1964, 155 pages with bibliography.

Fonorow, Amanda. 2012. Hobohemia: Discovering the American Hobo Sub-culture, An Introduction and Annotated Bibliography. LIS 620. University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Available online.

This was a paper written for a graduate level course in library studies. The author provides a good introduction to existing literature about hobos, helpfully organized into various eras and genres. The annotations of various publications — books and newspapers as well as some music — are particularly useful (and a good supplement to those provided in this bibliography). The paper is weakest in documenting modern-era hoboing publications, with an over-emphasis on those published by Crimethink.

Forbes, James. 1903. Jockers and the Schools They Keep. Charities, November 7, pp. 432-36.

---. 1911. John the Yeggman. Outlook, August 12, pp. 823-828.

Forbes provides insight into the practices, methods, tools and behavioral characteristics of yeggs (safe-cracking criminals and/or criminals who ride the rails and rob others). John Yegg is a term, not a specific person. However, many real-life yeggs are discussed (e.g.. Topeka Joe, Fatty Ghee, Buck Bullard).

---. 1911. The Tramp; or Caste in the Jungle. Outlook, August 19, pp. 869-75.

The editors of the Outlook noted that Forbes — as the Secretary of the National Association for the Prevention of Mendicancy — was the leading authority of the country on underworld having studied those sections of criminal and diligent classes [p.869]. Forbes discussed the distinctions and background of the members of the various hobo strata (classes): tramps, hoboes, gaycats, transient workmen, jockers, kids, nixey winger (person without arms due to train accident), and mush faks. Specific cases and people are used to illustrate various points (e.g.. Ohio Slim, Susquehanna Red, Spider Kid). Modes of communication (e.g.. the water tower bulletin board), hobo fatalities, drinking, terminology, are discussed and lyrics to a few songs are provided.

Forster, Victor Wadham. 1934. Vancouver Through the Eyes of a Hobo. paper covers.

Foster, Harry L. 1922. The Adventures of a Tropical Tramp. Dodd Meade & Co. Availabile online at "hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b144998".

Foster, William Z. 1939. Pages from a Worker's Life. New York: International Publishers Co.

Fotografia Magazine. 2016. These are the faces of America's Train Riders. Interview with Michael Joseph and photos from his photo collection Lost and Found. Posted March 16, 2016.

Lost and Found is a collection of black and white portraits of young trainriders. The photographer has never hopped trains and doesn't portray train riding, just riders.

Fox, R.M. 1930. Rolling Stones. Nineteenth Century, June, pp. 846-54.

Fox, Terry. 1985. Hobo Signs: A Compilation of Hobo Signs for Those Who May One Day Find Them Useful. Munchen, Germany: Kunstraum Munchen, 112 pages with bibliographical references.

A collection of hobo signs illustrated in freehand with definitions with a brief history.

Fried, Frederick. 1964. No Pie in the Sky; The Hobo as American Cultural Hero in the works of Jack London (1876-1916), John Dos Passos (1896-1970), and Jack Kerouac (1922-1969). New York: Citadel Press, 95 pages with a bibliography.

Gallivan, Joseph. 2002. Beamsplitters, for the Portland OR Tribune.

Garahan, Melbourne. 1924. Stiffs. New York: T. Seltzer, 311 pages.

Garland, Hamlin. 1917. A Son of the Middle Border. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company. Reprinted 1927, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 467 pages. Available online at "archive.org/details/asonofmiddle00garlrich".

---. 1926a. Trail-Makers of the Middle Border. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company, 426 pages. Includes illustrations and plates.

---. 1926b. A Daughter of the Middle Border. New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 405 pages.

Garon, Paul and G. Tomko. 2006. What's the Use of Walking if There's a Freight Train Going Your Way? Black Hoboes and their Songs. Chicago, Charles Kerr Publishing. 288 pages with index and bibliography.

Garrard, G.A. 1896. "Boy Tramps and Reform Schools: A Reply to Mr. Flynt". The Century Illustrated. volume 51. April. p. 955.

This is a response to Josiah Flynt's October, 1895 article in The Century, "How Men Become Tramps" in which Flynt blamed the reformatory school system (which he had experienced) for sending boys into "trampdom". Garrard defends the reform school system, claiming most inmates end up being "industrious, law-abiding, useful citizens".

"Gentle Art of Hoboing As Practised by an Artist". 1921. Literary Digest. Volume 70. July 16. pp. 40-43.

An interview with "Saltbush Bill" and his hobo adventures in both the US and Australia.

George, Jason. 2005. Part of Americana? the rail-riding hobos, for the Des Moines IA Register.

Gerhardinger, William. 2020. "The transformative history of the Kokosing Gap Trail". Kenyon Collegian. September 17. Available online.

Article about how Kenyon College students used to catch freight trains to Cleveland if they wanted to save money on trips to the big city.

Gilmore, Harlan. The Beggar. New York: University of North Carolina Press, 1940.

Glave, James. 1995. Club Wired: Abdul Rahimov for Club Wired.

Goffard, Christopher. 2009. On the run from everything but each other, for the Los Angeles Times.

Gojack, John. A Long Way From Hungary.

Goldman, Emma. 1910. Anarchism, and Other Essays with Biographic Sketch by Hippolyte Havel. Reprinted 1969, Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 277 pages with portraits.

---. 1931. Living My Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Reprinted 1970, New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 2 volumes, includes illustrations, portraits; and 1982, Salt Lake City: G.M. Smith, 993 pages with portraits.

Goodkind, Bill (aka "Windy Bill"). 1907. An American Hobo in Europe: A True Narrative of the Adventures of a Poor American At Home and in the Old Country. Calkins Publishing House, San Francisco. Available to read read online.

Goodwin, David W. 2014. The Six-Year-Old Hobo. Xlibris LLC.

A fictional story about an "almost seven-year-old boy who gets fed up with his workaholic and technology obsessed parents and decides to hop a freight train in the middle of the night from his small town in New Mexico (Belen I believe). He is immediately befriended by two hobos and goes on a life-changing journey".

Gordon, John. 1927. Tramp Printer. The Gordon Press, Brewer, Maine

Gorsuch, William J. 1891. The Tramp as a Social Factor, Hartford. Hartford, CT. Central Labor Union. Press of Clark and Smith.

An address, published as an 18-page pamphet, in which Gorsuch argues for better treatment by society towards tramps.

Gracey, Everett L. 1999. From a 13 Year Old Hobo to an Entrepeneur. published by E.L. Gracey, Box 6000, Reno NV 89513-6000. 80pp.

This guy had a pretty rough time of it, but not nearly as well written. More for the reader who reads everything they can find on the hobo experience.

Graham, James D. 2003. Rail culture: the language of freight-hoppers, for the Charlottesville VA Hook.

Graham, Maury "Steam Train" and Robert J. Hemming. 1985. A History of Hoboes, Tramps, and other Vagabonds. Toledo, OH: Graham.

A discussion of the definitions and distinctions of hoboes, tramps, transients, hitchhikers, bums, boomers, gypsies, winos, and rubber vagabonds. This also contains another of Graham's books, Patches.

---. 1985. Patches: About Britt, Iowa and its Hoboes. Toledo, OH: Graham.

Graham, Rodney. 2005. The Wanderers, for the Winnipeg, Manitoba Street Sheet Canada.

---. 2015. In Search of the Wanderers, for the Winnipeg, Manitoba Street Sheet Canada.

---. 2015. The Wanderers: Ten Years After, for the Winnipeg, Manitoba Street Sheet Canada.

---. 2005. Train Hopping the Fraser Canyon, for the Winnipeg, Manitoba Street Sheet Canada.

---. 2006. Train Hopping Canada's West, for the Winnipeg, Manitoba Street Sheet Canada.

---. 2006. Train Hopping Across Canada - part 1, for the Winnipeg, Manitoba Street Sheet Canada.

---. 2006. Train Hopping Across Canada - part 2, for the Winnipeg, Manitoba Street Sheet Canada.

---. 2006. Train Hopping Across Canada - part 3, for the Winnipeg, Manitoba Street Sheet Canada.

Granade, Andrew S. 2014. Harry Partch, Hobo Composer. Eastman Studies in Music, Vol. 120. October 1. (See also Partch, Harry. 1991).

Grayson, David. 1925. Adventures of David Grayson: Adventures in Contentment, Adventures in Friendship, The Friendly Road. New York: Doubleday.

Green, Howard. 1979. A Devil With a Lot of Questions: Reverend John McCook and His 1891 Tramp Survey. paper presented at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, New Orleans, LA, April

Greenhalgh, Cy. W. 2000. Rogues, Hoboes, and Entrepreneurs, a good memoir of the 30's hobo experience, with other experiences before and after. 218 pp.

Gregory, Ted. 1995. Weekend Hobos Romance of the Rails Lures Some Unlikely Vagabonds. Chicago Tribune, July 3.

An article about the "Loco Motives", a group of hobo enthusiasts who gather to share hobo stories in Chicago. The truths about rail life, its lure, and Chicago are discussed. A hobo glossary is included.

Grienbrier, J.J. 1977. Railroadin, Etc.

A very unusual fictionalized account of poverty and rail riding in the south in the 1930s. Appears to be based on the author's experiences.

Grosfield, Byron. 1981. Buckaroos and Boxcars. Big Timber, Montana: Pioneer Publishing Co.

Grossardt, Ted. 1996. Harvest(ing) Hoboes: The Production of Labor Organization through the Wheat Harvest. Agricultural History 2, pgs 283-302.

Guitar Solo to the Luring Freight Car. 1923. Chicago Literary Times, June 15.

Gurule, Jo Ann. 2009. Life for the American Hobo. PublishAmerica, Baltimore (I think this is a print on demand book).

A turkey, this book is poorly written, mainly a rehash of information easily found in a number of other, more well known histories of hobo life.

Gutman, Herbert. 1973. Work, Culture, and Society in America, 1815-1919. American Historical Review, June.

Haardt, Sara. 1928. Jim Tully. American Mercury, May, pp. 82-89.

Hacha, Barbara. 2011. Line by Line. MediaMix Productions LLC.

A self-published novel, set in the Great Depression about a young woman who flees her central Ohio town and starts riding freight trains. The book has had several favorable reviews and awards.

Hader, John, J. 1928. Honk Honk Hobo. The Survey, August 1, pp. 453-455.

An early article about rubber-tramping. The context is mostly a comparison between rubber-tramps and freight tramps. Interesting photos.

Haggard, Merle with Peggy Russell. with Tom Carter. 1999. My House of Memories. Cliff Street Books.

Another Haggard memoir with descriptions of his train riding days.

Haggard, Merle with Peggy Russell. 1981. Sing Me Back Home. Times Books 287 pages.

A memoir with freighthopping involved.

Hall, J. N. 1892. How the Tramp Travels. Harper's Weekly, March 12, pp. 255-56.

Hallet, Richard Mathews. This Rolling World.

Hallman, Tom Jr. 1995. Rail Police Have Hard Life on Tracks. Oregonian, Monday, April 17, B/6.

An article about the trivialities, dangers, and difficulties of railroad police work with excerpts of interviews with Tom Morrison, supervising agent in Portland, OR and special agent Bob Spinks of the Union Pacific Railroad.

Hanson, George. God bless you Big Joe. The Evening Sun, Baltimore, May 18 1983, A12.

Hapgood, Hutchins. 1910. Types From City Streets. New York: Garrett Press. Reprinted 1970, The Social History of Poverty: The Urban Experience Series, 379 pages with illustrations.

Harlow, Alvin Fay. 1931. Old Bowery Days: The Chronicles of A Famous Street. New York and London: D. Appleton, 564 pages. Includes illustrations and bibliography.

Harper, Douglas A. 1976. The Homeless Man: An Ethnography of Work, Trains, and Booze. Ph.D. dissertation, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Microfilms.

---. 1979. Life on the Road. in John Wagner, ed., Images of Information: Still Photography in Social Sciences. Sage Focus Editions, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 311 pages. Includes preface by Howard S. Becker and bibliography.

Harring, Sidney. 1977. Class Conflict and the Suppression of Tramps in Buffalo, 1892-1894. Law and Society Review, Summer.

Harris, Leo. 1878. The Man Who Tramps. Indianapolis.

Harris, Sara. 1956. Skid Row, U.S.A.. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 285 pages.

Harris attempted to debunk "common misconceptions" about those who belong to the Skid Row class. Chapter Seven "Hobohemia U.S.A", is a conversation between Harris and hoboes "Schloime the Troime", "Cussin Cassidy", "Rickety Stan", and "Big Belly Bob Johnson". The I.W.W. is a large portion of the discussion.

Harvey, Barbara. 2015. Rail Riders: Inside the Invisible World of Train Hopping. May 4. The American River Current. American River College. Sacramento. www.arcurrent.com/magazine-dam/2015/05/04/rail-riders-inside-the-invisible-culture-of-train-hopping.

An article in a Sacramento community college student paper about some of the violence in train hopping culture, focused on the nearby tramp hub of Roseville.

Hayes, Nick. 2016. Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl Ballads. Abrams Comic Arts: New York.

A full-length hardcover graphic novel based on the life and legacy of the famous musician, including portrayals of his rambling hobo days.

Haywood, Bill. 1929. Bill Haywood's Book: The Autobiography of William D. Haywood. New York: International Publishers.

---. 1969. The I.W.W. Trial: The Case of the United States Versus William D. Haywood and Others, Held at the United States District Court at Chicago, 1918. New York: Arno Press, Mass Violence America Series, 208 pages.

Healy, T.F. 1926. Hobo Hits the Highroad. American Mercury, July, pp. 334-38.

Heller, H.J. Hoboes Boxcar Rides a Journey into Life. Pittsburg Press, Dec 23, 1979.

Hennessy, Dan. On the Bum: Sketches of Tramp Life. Girard: Haldeman-Julius.

Henry, Bonnie. 2007. Riding the Rails, for the Tucson Arizona Daily Star.

Hermida, Arianne. 2016. Wobbly Wheels: The IWW's Boxcar Strategy. IWW History Project. University of Washington. Available online at "depts.washington.edu/iww/wobbly_trains.html".

Herrick, William. 2001. Jumping the Line. AK Press, Oakland, 279 pages.

An autobiographical account of "the adventures and misadventures of an American radical". Herrick was at various times a farm worker, member of the IWW, hobo, fighter in the Spanish Civil War, and novelist.

Hertoghs, Jan. 1996. On the Rail Again, for the Belgian magazine Humo, in 4 parts, July 23, July 30, Aug. 6, Aug. 13.

---. 1997. Hard travellin', for the London Independant.

Hibberd, James. 1998. Trainhopping. Austin American-Statesman, Jan. 15

Hibberd, James. 1998. Trainhopping, for the Austin TX American-Statesman.

Hillogrates, Aristotle Flavius (pseud) 1901. The Conglomerate de Omniferia; Or, The Meditations of a Hobo (A.F. Hildebrand).

Hinkle, Ray. 1991. Polk County Vagabond: A Hobo Autobiography

---. 2020. If You Don't Know What Tramps' Signs Mean, Read This Article It Explains the Bo's Hieroglyphics (Hobo Signs). Salt Lake City. 32p.

"Beginning in the 1870s, newspaper reporters wrote incendiary stories of organized tramp armies, equipped with secret signs and symbols that enabled their train hopping, begging, and stealing. One hundred and fifty years later, modern Americans are convinced that hobo signs are authentic history. We're not so sure-this zine presents original newspaper articles from the 1870s through the 1930s, and a summary of our own opinions..." A high quality booklet that raises the question of whether the widespread belief in hobo signs is in fact based in reality.

---. 2020. Please Return. Salt Lake City. 28p.

Ruminations and ephemera about Iowa Blackie and the Britt Hobo Convention, with several bonuses.

Hix, Lisa. 2015. Don't Call Them Bums: The Unsung History of America's Hard-Working Hoboes. Collectors Weekly, April 16. www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/dont-call-them-bums-the-unsung-history-of-americas-hard-working-hoboes.

An online overview of American hobo history, taken almost entirely from hobo history books and an interview with curator of the Hobo Museum in Britt, IA. Good illustrations/historical photos. The early history is relatively well done, more modern hobo history suffers from being viewed through the Britt lens, lacks depth and insight into more recent train rider culture and perpetuates myths that lack historical validity. No past or current train riders appear to have been directly interviewed.

"Hobnobbing Hobos Share the Code of the Road". Morning Call. September 13, 1992. Available online.

Hoboes' Union, Journal of Switchman's Union of North America. 1914, pp. 20-22.

Hoboes of America, Inc. 1938/1939 Year Book, Encyclopedia, and Reference Manual. Printed by the Executive Board, Milwaukee.

Hobo Hegemony: Convention to Decide Among Rival Kings of Road Knights. Literary Digest, April 10, 1937, pp. 10-12. Originally appeared in Hobo News. Reprinted by National Hobo Foundation, Britt, Iowa.

Hobo Lee/Hobos From Hell. 1992-2004. There's Something About a Train. Issues 1 - 7. Issues ^#3-7 reprinted by Microcosm Publishing, 2020. Portland, OR.

Something About a Train was a classic 1990s self-published freighthopping zine which describes an era in which train riding exploded within the punk, anarchist, and eco-activist communities, starting in the early 1990s. Hobo Lee, operating from the "Hobos from Hell" treehouse squat high in a redwood tree in Santa Cruz, compiled stories from others, some taken from other early 1990s zines and, increasingly in later issues, submitted by others. Issues ^#1 and ^#2 were very short, mainly "how-to" guides that were more or less incorporated into Issue ^#3. Later issues were very large, over 100 pages in some cases, featuring stories, photos, artwork and, in some issues, "Hoboerotica".

Hobo News, 1913-1929 and 1937-1948.

A monthly newspaper, founded by James Eads How and originally published by the International Brotherhood Welfare Association (originally a less radical hobo organization than the IWW), first as the Hoboes Jungle Scout and from 1915 on as the Hobo News. It was aimed at hobos but they could also get bulk orders and sell them to the public to make money and as such was the original inspiration for the modern street paper. After crackdowns on the IWW after World War I, many Wobblies joined the IBWA, radicalizing it. This led to a split and a new more radical publication, Hobo World. emerged as a competitor to the Hobo Times. The Hobo Times ceased publication shortly before How's death in 1930. Few copies appear to exist, the largest collection is at the St. Louis Public Library. In 2020 a project to digitize their collection was initiated, in cooperation with the Alabama Digital Humanities Center. For some of these issues see cdm17210.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hobonews. BBCRC is slowly assembling a collection of these issues in pdf format, which we will have available to read in our library and which could be sent to interested parties upon request.

Another newspaper by the same name began publishing in 1936, also featuring news for hobos, opinions, etc. It was run by Ben "Coast Kid" (Hobo) Benson and Pat "The Roaming Dreamer" Mulkern. In 1948 it was succeeded by the short-lived Bowery News.

Hodson, Mark. 1998. Hobo activities, for the London Sunday Times.

Hofer, E. 1893-94. The Tramp Problem. Overland Monthly, 23, p. 628.

Hoffman, Victor F. 1953. The American Tramp, 1870-1900. Masters thesis, University of Chicago.

Hoffmeister, Peter. 2015. The Freedom and Danger of Freight-Hopping Across America. Vice Magazine. February 12. Available online at "www.vice.com/read/the-illegal-freight-train-life-stolen-pizzas-and-hobo-handjobs-212".

An interview with Mike Ranta, one of a number of a photographers who are enjoying commercial success/career advancement through photographing and documenting train riders and modern hobo culture.

Holden, Stephen. 2005. Hopping Freight Trains in the Twilight of Hobo Tradition, for the New York Times.

A review of Sarah George's film "Catching Out".

Holmburg, Mark. 2016. Admitted train-hopping serial killer is proud, looking forward to "retirement" in Virginia prison. WTVR, Richmond, VA, March 3. wtvr.com/2016/03/03/admitted-train-hopping-serial-killer-is-proud-looking-forward-to-retirement-in-virginia-prison.

Holter, Darryl and William Deverall. 2016. Woody Guthrie and Skid Row in Los Angeles 1937-1941. Angel City Press. Los Angeles, CA.

As the Depression deepened and the dark dust storms ravaged the towns of the Southwest, Woody Guthrie learned to ride the rails and interact with migrant workers, the homeless, and hoboes. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1937 penniless and without a job or a place to live. As Woody wrote in 1939, "Skid Row is generally where you land when you first hit Los Angeles on a freight train a'blowin' out of the Dustbowl". During his years in Los Angeles from 1937 to 1941 Woody spent a lot of time on L.A.'s Skid Row. He often worked there, frequently performing his songs for tips and drinks in the bars, coffee shops, and street corners...

Photos taken by the homeless, houseless, and traveling young people of San Francisco's Haight Ashbury.

Hoover, Erin. 1996. Police Question Suspect in Boxcar Slayings. The Oregonian, March 7, B/1.

A report on the investigation of Robert Joseph Silveria (aka "Sidetrack"), suspected of killing two men found in boxcars in Oregon. His involvement in homicides in Arizona, California, Kansas, Montana, Texas and Utah is also mentioned.

Hopkins, Bobb "Santa Fe 'Bo". 1988. Hobo Travel Guide, Los Angeles: National Hobo Association.

An introduction to freight hopping and the National Hobo Association.

How Baltimore Banished Tramps. Forum, pp. 497-504. An early article on the tramp problem and the in-vogue remedies of the day.

How to Tell a Hobo from a Mission Stiff. Survey, March, 21, 1914, p. 781.

Houlgrave, Bryon S. 2004. Life on the Open Rails, for the Charles City IA Press.

Howe, Ken. 1996. American Nomads, for the San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 14.

Hubbard, Elbert. 1893. Rights of Tramps. Arena, pp. 593-600.

Hultkrans, Andrew. 2005. Photo Bill's search for Bozo Texino, for Stim.

Hultkrans, Andrew. 1998. Photo Bill's search for Bozo Texino. from the StimWebsite

Hunt, Max. 2016. Off the beaten track: Freight trains, freedom and the traveling culture. Mountain Xpress Weekly Newspaper. Asheville, NC. Pubished July 7, 2016. Available online at "mountainx.com/news/off-the-beaten-track-freight-trains-freedom-and-the-traveling-culture".

Local weekly newspaper in Asheville, North Carolina interviews Brody Hunt and others about modern train riding culture, has some local references. It is a relatively in-depth and thoughtful article for a newspaper.

Hurt, R. Douglas. 1981. The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 214 pages. Includes 16 leaves of plates, illustrations, maps, index, and bibliography.

Huston, Johnny Ray. 2005. Man of Many Marks, for the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Hutchinson, James Lee. 2016. On Leatherwood Creek. Authorhouse.

A self-published memoir of life during the Great Depression and up to World War II. A wide ranging book with I'm guessing just a few secondhand accounts of hoboing.

Hyde, James. 1983. Memoirs of a Teenage Hobo in the Thirties. Rev edition, Carlton Press.

International Welfare Brotherhood Association. circa 1927-29. The Hobo in Song and Poetry: The most complete Hobo Song Book every issued. Containing all the old favorites. IWBA, Cincinnati. 24 pages.

Printed on newsprint, this book was published by the IWBA, James Ead How's organization which at the time was also publishing the original "Hobo News" and running "Hobo Colleges" in some cities. Undated but it references reprinting a 1926 song and the IWBA folded, more or less, in 1930 so it must date from the late 1920s. Note: In 2021 the BBCRC received the donation of an original copy of this now extremely rare publication once owned by Utah Phillips. Hard copies will be in the library and pdfs available on request.

Irvine, Martha. 1999. Hobos hurt over serial-killer image, for the Associated Press.

Irwin, Dave. 1999. Loco Motives. Phoenix New Times, January 14.

An in-depth look at the annual New Year's gathering of the "Combat Railfans" at their trackside Sonoran Desert campsite during a period when the Phoenix based group was attracting a large and diverse group of people from the hobo community. Available online.

Irwin, Dave. 1998. Train Gang, for the Tucson AZ Weekly.

Irwin, Godfrey. 1930. The American Tramp and Underworld Slang. New York: Sears Publishing Company Co. Reprinted in 1931 as American Tramp and Underworld Slang; Words and Phrases used by Hoboes, Tramps, Migratory Workers and Those on the Fringes of Society, With Their Uses and Origins, with a Number of Tramp Songs, Edited, with Essays on the Slang and the Songs, by Godfrey Irwin. With a Terminal Essay on American slang in its Relation to English Thieves' Slang, by Eric Partridge. London: E. Partridge, Ltd. at the Scholartis Press, 263 pages.

Irwin, Will. 1914. The Floating Laborer. Saturday Evening Post, May 9.

Jackson, Daniel. 2004. Young hobos said to be seeking escape, for the Scripps Howard News Service.

Jackson, Jason. 1957. Overland Slim the Maverick; The Seven Ages of the Eventful Life of a Genuine American Hobo. New York: Greenwich Book Publishers, 99 pages.

Jacobsen, Kurt. 1994. Hail the Noble Movie Savage. The Guardian, June 9, p. 9.

Jacobsen discussed the depiction of homeless people in modern films, with historical emphasis, citing the origins of this phenomenon as Charlie Chaplin's tramp and the vicious hobo in Jean Renoir's film "Boudu Saved from Drowning".

James, Joseph. 2002. In the Path of a Hobo. Xlibris Corporation.

Jefferson, David J. 1992. Weekend Hobos Try to Recapture a Romantic Past. Wall Street Journal, January 28, A/1.

A feature about the "Beverly Hills 'Bos" who live in and around Beverly Hills, CA. Some members ride the rails in their spare time, while others gather to hear and share stories about hobo life. [See Madigan1992; it is a response to this article. Madigan was the safety inspector for the Federal Railroad Administration].

Jenkins, Leo. 2016. First Train Out of Denver. Blackside Publishing

Novel with some train riding.

Jodrey, Bill. 2002. Diary of a Hobo. Xlibris Corporation.

Johanningsmeier, Edward P. 1994. Forging American Communism: the Life of William Z. Foster.

Jones, David. 1993. Let the Hobo Myth Die: Debunking a Popular Image. Trains Magazine, 53/3: 72.

Jones, a college professor and historic railroad hobbyist, discouraged the glorification of hobo life because it serves as an incorrect role model which youths could emulate. Secondly, the popular image does not consider the harsh reality of the hobo way of life.

Jones, G.C. 1985. Growing up Hard in Harlan County. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky.

Jury, Mark. 1979. The Last American Romantic. Ambassador, March, pp. 46-52.

Kaldheim, Peter. 2019. "Personal Story: The Day I Hopped a Freight Train", The New Statesman. August 14. www.newstatesman.com/world/north-america/2019/08/personal-story-day-i-hopped-freight-train.

A short story in a British journal of how a first freight train trip was a part of the author's journey of rebuilding his life.

Kaplan, Steve. 1988. Hallelujah, I'm a Bum. Travel Holiday, November, p. 96.

The events of the National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa are discussed: the Hobo King and Queen Elections, parade, art fairs, carnival rides, games, races, music, poetry and story-telling, flea markets, and more. Historical facts about attendance and the hoboes' sleeping accommodations are also mentioned (empty boxcars on the outskirts of town).

Kazarian, John. 1933. The Starvation Army. The Nation, April 12-26.

Keeley, Steve, ed. 1986. Hobo Life in America: Training Manual. Lansing, MI: Lansing Community College. An instructional text on the tradition of riding freight trains.

Kelly, Edmond. The Elimination of the Tramp.

Kelly, Jessie. 1912. The Tramps Convention: An Entertainment in One Scene. Boston.

Kemp, Harry. 1911. The Lure of the Tramp. Independent, June 8, pp. 1270-71.

---. 1914. The Cry of Youth. New York: Mitchell, Kennerly. Available online at "archive.org/details/cryyouth00kempgoog".

---. 1920. Chanteys and Ballads. New York: Brentano's.

---. 1923. The Hobo. New Republic, August 22, pp. 365-66.

Kennedy, Bart. 1908. A Tramp's Philosophy. John Long, 317 pp.

Kenny, Raymond. 1911. The Hobo Convention. Survey, September, 23, pp. 862-864.

A report on The Hobo Convention (officially The Convention of the Unemployed" organized by James Eads How held in Washington, D.C. September 1-6, 1911, and the fifty or so hoboes that attended.

Kerouac, Jack. 1958. The Dharma Bums. New York: Viking Press.

---. 1955. On the Road. New York: The Viking Press.

---. 1960. The Vanishing American Hobo. Holiday, March, p.60.

Kershaw, Alex. 2013. Riding the Rails. self-published blog, posted August 13, 2013. However it appears to have been written in the late 1990s and may have been published elsewhere at that time. Available at alexkershawauthor.com/?p=182.

Kershner, Jim. 2022. "100 Years Ago in Spokane: A Freight-Hopping College Kid Gave His Account of Life on the Run". The Spokesman-Review, August 13. Available online.

Synopsis of an article the paper ran a century ago about a student hopping freight trains.

---. 2023. "100 years ago in Spokane: The wild tale of two students' trek to see a Gonzaga basketball game featured freight-hopping and electrocution, but no basketball". The Spokesman-Review, March 1. Available online.

Synopsis of an article the paper ran a century ago about two students hopping freight trains.

Kindred, Dave. 2021. Leave Out the Tragic Parts: A Grandfather's Search for a Boy Lost to Addiction, New York: Public Affairs.

An attempt to understand the life of Jared Kindred, the author's grandson, who left his home and family at the age of eighteen to wander across America on freight trains and live on the street.

Klein, Joe. 1980. Woody Guthrie: A Life. New York, Random House. 512 pages.

Klein, Nicholas. 1926. Hobo Lingo. American Speech, September, pp. 650-53.

A brief discussion of the origins of the word hobo (advocating the hoe-boy theory) with a listing of over two hundred hobo terms and phrases.

Knibbs, Henry. 1914. Songs of the Outlands: Ballads of the Hoboes and Other Verses. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

---. 1930. Songs of the Lost Frontier. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Kornbluh, Joyce L., editor. 1964. Rebel Voices: An I. W. W. Anthology. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Reprinted 1968, Ann Arbor Paperback Series, 419 pages. Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, Chicago. 1998.

Includes illustrations, cartoons, photographs, lyrics, notes, and a glossary of terms and phrases of the migratory worker, (including hobo, lumberjack and miner terms), and bibliography. Korbluh, the former executive secretary of the AFL-CIO Joint Minimum Wage Committee, has provided a comprehensive history of the I.W.W. as told by the Wobblies themselves. It is a story of their strikes, free-speech fights, trials, and riots, of militancy and martyrdom, of sacrifices and suppression, of epic struggles for One Big Union and a Cooperative Commonwealth which would be free class and nationality distinctions [preface]. Kornbluh has accomplished this by presenting a collection of articles, stories, cartoons, lyrics, and photographs from the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan Library. Chapter Three, "Riding the Rails: I.W.W. Itinerants", devotes particular attention to hoboes [pages 65-93].

Kotler, Steven. 1999. Damn Track, for Maxim.

Kotler, Steven. 1999. Damn Track. Maxim, June edition

Kromer, Tom. 1986. Waiting for Nothing and Other Writings. edited by Casciato, Arthur, Athens: The University of Georgia Press.

Kuhn, M. 1915. The Hobo Problem and an Immediate Practical Solution. St. Louis.

This was a pamphlet referenced in Nel Anderson's "The Hobo" and also advertised in the Hobo News (May, 2015). From the pamphet: "The hobo is a seasonal, transient, migratory worker of either sex. Being a seasonal worker he is necessarily idle much of the time; being transient, he is necessarily homeless. He is detached from the soil and the fireside. By the nature of his work and not by his own will, he is precluded from establishing a home and rearing a family. Sex, poverty, habits and degree of skill have nothing whatever to do with classifying individuals as hobos; the character of his work does that. There are individuals not hobos who pose as such. They are enabled to do this for two reasons; first, hobos have no organization by which they can expose the impostor; second, the frauds are encouraged and made possible by organized and private charity. The hobo class, therefore, is unable to rid itself of this extremely undesirable element. With organization it can and will be done even if charity, which is strongly opposed by the hobo class, is not abolished."

Kusmer, Kenneth. 2002. Down and Out, On the Road: The Homeless in American History. New York: Oxford University Press, 332 pp.

Although containing a lot more than most people would ever want to know, I particularly like his analysis of how the historical changes in American industry from the colonial era into the 19^th century affected the way tramps and hobos were "created" and perceived by both urban and rural Americans. Changes in the attitudes of railroad workers towards hobos were also significant as the working conditions and experiences of panics (economic depressions) became part of the historical memory. There is a lot of content discussing hobo jungles, skid row areas of cities, and related sociological data that is less than riveting reading, but the author quotes extensively from many very interesting sources.

Kussmaul, Allen. 2009. Life on the Bum in the Early 30s.

Ladies of the Road. Literary Digest, August 13, 1932, p. 33.

Lafot, E. 1950. Hobo Travels and Hitchhiking in 1885-1886.

Landry, Levi. 2022. "Train Hopper Takes His Urge for Adventure Through Kamloops". InfoTel News, July 30. Available online.

A canadian news article about a guy in WI, married for 48 years with 3 kids, who regularly hops trains and has a Youtube channel.

Lane, Tim. 2008. Abandoned Cars. Fantagraphics Press. Seattle.

A collection of comics which includes a nice section featuring a guy catching out of Minneapolis' Northtown yard. It has a lot of other stuff in it, mostly the seedy underbelly of America with a very depressing noir tone, but I liked the freight hopping section.

Larson, Frederic. 2005. Riding the Cyber-Rails, for 24 Hours in Cyberspace.

Latham, Frank. 1971. The Panic of 1893. School & Library Binding.

Laubach, Charles. 1916. Why there are Vagrants. New York: Columbia University Press.

Laukkanen, Owen. 2017. The Forgotten Girls. London: Penguin Random House.

Crime novel about a killer who rides trains in the Rockies.

Laurent, Camille Pierre. The Schoolboys and the Hobo: Black American Culture Between Orality and Literacy.

Laws, Wallace. 1910. Life of a Tramp. Chicago: MA Donohue.

Lawson, Archie. 1980. Freight Trains West. Sacramento: Lucas Publishers.

Leavitt, Samuel. 1886. The Tramps and the Law. Forum, pp. 190-200.

LeDuff, Charlie. 2002. Under the Bridge, a Man of Means by No Means, for the New York Times.

Lee, Murray and Jayonna Scurry, Blake Kelley. 2024. JCPD: Missing Man Mark 'Shoestring' Nichols Found Dead in Boone Lake, WJHL Johnson City, April 5, 2024. www.wjhl.com/news/local/fishermen-find-body-in-boone-lake-jcpd-reports

Short article about finding Hobo Shoestring's missing body.

Lee, W. Anderson. 2013. The Ridden Rail: Train Hoppers Today, Wand'rly. January 13.

A relatively in-depth (for an online journal) overview of train riding circa 2012. Mostly based on secondary sources including by watching other peoples' documentaries.

Leeflang, Gerard. 1984. American Travels of a Dutch Hobo, 1923-1926. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 162 pages.

A memoir, illustrated by the author with interesting pen and ink line drawings. It only mentions one trip by freight, but has some interesting accounts of driving a taxi in Chicago during prohibition.

---. 2004. Ridin' the Rails: The Place of the Passenger and the Space of the Hobo. Journal of American Popular Culture, Vol. 3, Issue 2

Lescohier, Don. 1920. Harvest Labor Problems in the Wheat Belt. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 1020, Washington D.C., Government Printing Office.

---. 1923. Harvesters and Hoboes in the Wheat Fields. Survey, August 1, pp. 482-487.

Lever, Charles (the Tilbury Tramp). 1845. Tales of the Trains. W.S. Orr, London.

Levinson, David & Ross, M., Eds. 2007. Homelessness Handbook. Berkshire Publishing Group, Massachusetts.

"Briefly covers hobo literature, songs and writings from the Progressive Era through the Great Depression, particularly on sidebars on pages 12 through 21. These sidebars provide brief glimpses into hobo culture and will certainly entice readers to continue their research". (Fonorow, 2012). Includes short bibliography.

Levy, Dan. 1991. Hoboes Meet to Trade Tales of Riding the Rails. San Francisco Chronicle, January 17, A/2.

Lewarne, Charles P. 1973. "On the Wobbly Train to Fresno", Labor History. Vol. 14, No. 2. Spring.

An account of the 1911 journey by freight train of 150 IWW members from Portland south, intending to join a IWW free-speech fight in Fresno, California. On the way they have various adventures, encountering support from many townspeople and a mixed reaction from the police and some railroad officials.

Lewis, Orlando, F. 1907. Vagrancy in the United States. Conference of Charities and Corrections, National Proceedings, pp. 52-77.

---. 1907. Vagrants and the Railroad. North American, July, 19, pp. 603-13.

---. 1908. The American Tramp. Atlantic Monthly, June, pp. 744-53.

---. 1909. Concerning Vagrancy. Charities, January 23, pp. 713-17

---. 1909. Railway Vagrancy. Charities, January 23, pp. 713-717.

Library of Congress, Music Division, Archive of Folk Song. 1983. A Selected Bibliography on Hoboes and Their Folklore With Library of Congress Call Numbers. Washington, D.C.: The Archive, 3 pages.

Lindsay, Vachel, N. 1912. Rules of the Road. American Magazine, May, pp.54-59.

---. 1916. A Handy Guide for Beggars, Especially Those of The Poetic Fraternity; Being Sundry Explorations, Made While Afoot and Penniless in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. These Adventures Convey and Illustrate the Rules of Beggary for Poets and Some Others. New York and Boston: The Macmillan Company, 205 pages. Availabile online at "archive.org/details/handyguideforbeg017659mbp".

Linkletter, Art. 1980. I Didn't Do It Alone. Ottawa, Ill.: Caroline House Publishers.

Linnemeir, John. 2008. How an Average Man Lived an Adventurous Life. Authorhouse: Bloomington, IN. 324p.

Only one of the many vignettes is about riding trains, with a long series of little blurbs here and there. Most are about hitchhiking across the Sahara (repeatedly) or boats in India or hiking in the Himalayas or opium dens in Laos after being drafted. It's very fantastical, entertaining and charming.

Lipton, Dean. 1991. Memoirs of a Bindle Stiff. San Francisco Chronicle, August 7, A/15.

Livingston, Leon Ray (aka "A No. 1")

Note: "A No. 1", aka Leon Ray Livingston, was a famous hobo/tramp in the early 1900s who self-published 12 books on tramp life (listed below) between 1910 and 1921. By one account, his books "brought attention not only to the state of the homeless in America, but also to the excitement and benefits of travelling the country for amusement". He was been recognized as an early "King of the Hobos" whose motto, reprinted on his book covers, states, "The Famous Tramp Who Traveled 500,000 miles for $$7.61". Some of his fame relates to his abilities at self-promotion but he certainly did ride extensively, including with Jack London. Many of his books were promoted as exposing the downfalls of tramp life and as meant to dissuade young people from hitting the rails. However, much as the film Wild Boys of the Road was later to do, the effect was often the opposite.

He has been credited with popularizing (or originating) the notion that hobos communicate by a system of hobo signs left in towns through which they travel (little evidence exists that this ever became a widespread practice). Some hobo historians have derided Livingston for sensationalizing hobo life for the sake of book sales. His books sanitize hobo life (they were marketed as "moral" and as not including anything that would be offensive to women or children). Still, they are widely considered to be classics and represent a vast trove of unique material and are engaging reads. Original editions are highly sought after to this day and include many unique illustrations. In order of publication, the books are listed below. At this point we have no reviews of individual books but are open to including those in the future.

---. 1913. The Trail of the Tramp. Erie: A-1 Publishing Co.

---. 1916. The Snare of the Road. Erie: A-1 Publishing Co.

---. 1918. Mother Delcassee of the hobos: And other stories. Erie: A-1 Publishing Co.

---. 1919. The Wife I Won. Erie: A-1 Publishing Co.

---. 1920. Traveling with Tramps. Erie: A-1 Publishing Co.

Loane, M. 1991. A Woman Supertramp. Living Age, January, 28, pp. 253-255.

Logan, Bob. 1994. More Hungry Boys. Commonwealth, February 25, p. 31.

Logan recalled his leaving home at the age of 16 in 1933 and leading the life of a hobo for 8 months before deciding to return home.

Lomax, Alan. 1960. The Folk Songs of North America In the English Language. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company Incorporated, 623 pages with illustrations. Reprinted in 1975 by Dolphin Books.

Includes many hobo and railroad songs

London, Jack. 1916. Rods and Gunnels. Bookman, October, pp. 176-79.

---. 1916. 1905. War of the Classes. New York: Macmillan. Reprinted 1970, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Literature House, 278 pages. Available online at "london.sonoma.edu/writings/WarOfTheClasses/".

---. 1916. 1907. Hoboes That Pass in the Nights. The Cosmopolitan, December, pp. 190-97.

---. 1916. 1908. Adventures With the Police. The Cosmopolitan, March, pp. 417-23.

---. 1916. 1979. Jack London on the Road: The Tramp Diary and Other Hobo Writings. edited by Richard W. Etulain, Utah State University Press.

Longley, K.J. 2003. Down the Track, for the North Little Rock AR Times.

Lovald, Keith Arthur. 1963. From Hobohemia to Skid Row: The Changing Community of the Homeless Man. Ph.D dissertation, University of Minnesota.

Love, Edmund. 1957. Subways Are for Sleeping. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 186 pages.

Lucas, Jessica. 2022. "Riding the Rails with YouTube's hobo vloggers". Input Magazine, May 17.

Available online.

Lummis, Charles Fletcher. 1892. A Tramp Across the Continent. New York: C. Scribner. Reprinted 1906, C. Scribner's Sons, 270 pages. Available online at "archive.org/details/contitrampacross00lummrich".

Lynch, John. 2003. Train hoppers' adventure ends in arrest, for the Longview TX News-Journal.

Lynn, Ethel. 1917. The Adventures of a Woman Hobo. New York: George H. Doran Company, 296 pages. Available online at "archive.org/details/adventuresawoma00lynngoog".

An autobiographical account of the experience of the author and her husband in traveling by bicycle from Chicago to California.

Mack, Josh. 2011. The Hobo Handbook: A Field Guide to Living by Your Own Rules. Adams Media, Avon, MA.

Not particularly rail-oriented, it has a lot of general information on subjects such as camping out, edible wild plants, first aid, etc. (much of which that can be found elsewhere in more detail). Still, it has a lot of good advice for the novice who wants to hit the road, and is probably the only such handbook in print. Some of the information includes historical sidebars about figures such as James Michener, Robert Mitchum, Merle Haggard, and Jack Dempsey, interesting but not terribly useful except as inspirational stories. The bibliography is pretty lame, including Eddy Joe Cotton's book next to Jack Black's You Can't Win. I got the impression that this guy hasn't got a lot of miles under his belt.

Mackensie, Kenneth. 1939. Living Rough. Johnathan Cape, 288 pp.

Madigan, Susan. 1992. Throw the Bums Out. Don't Romanticize 'Em. Wall Street Journal, February 24, A/15.

As the railroad safety inspector for the Federal Railroad Administration, Madigan responded to the January 28, 1992 article written by David Jefferson [see Jefferson 1992] wherein the life and exploits of hoboes were glorified. She condemned the article for complicating efforts to promote and maintain railroad safety.

Maggart, Gerald. Hobohemia During the Depression. University of Missouri Dissertation, 1932.

Mainer, M. L. and M.E. Mann. Me and Hobo Bill. (memoir)

Mallery, James Lynn. 1999. From a dangerous to a dependent and defective group of men: Social policy, urban space, and the masculinity of hoboes in San Francisco, 1849-1917. Dissertation: General University Microfilms.

Mansfield, Drummond. 1987. "Memories of the Road", American History Illustrated. Volume XX1, No. 10. February.

Mansfield described his experiences as a hobo during the Great Depression. Information is given about how hoboes traveled (riding on the tops of boxcars or inside empty ones) and where and how they camped (in jungles at the edges of railroad town). Distinctions of different types of hoboes are provided: some were migrant workers and were sometimes preyed upon by yeggs (hobo criminals who typically raided migrant camps around payroll time), and the hoboes that spent most of their lives on the rails and took to walking when they got too old to catch trains ("old airedales"). Mansfiled discussed the dangers and hardships of hobo life and the reasons why many paid this price for the freedom to roam.

Marsh, Benjamin. 1903-4. Causes of Vagrancy and Methods of Eradication. Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, pp. 445-46.

Marshall, Virginia. 2017. "How Hobo Nostalgia Inspired the 'Boxcar Children' Book Series", Atlas Obscura. June 16. www.atlasobscura.com/articles/boxcar-children-hobo-culture.

www.atlasobscura.com/categories/childrens-literature-week A short article describing how the author of "The Boxcar Children" series was influenced by 1920s hobo culture. And, interestingly, how the later 1942 version of the first book in the series is a sanitized simpler version of the original 1924 edition — which had included a drunk father and, apparently, more references to unseemly tramp behavior.

Martinez, Al. 1991. King of the Road. Los Angeles Times, March 14, B/2.

Martinez commented on his experience at the monthly meeting of the Los Angeles-based National Hobo Association at the Roadhouse Restaurant in Beverly Hills CA.

Maxwell, Cliff. 1929. Lady Vagabonds. Scribner's Magazine, March, pp. 88-92.

---. 1939. Daughters of the Road. Railroad Magazine, September, pp. 49-51.

Mayer, Cynthia. 1993. New Breed of Hobo Rides for Sheer Joy and Excitement. St. Paul Pioneer Press, Thursday, May 13, D/13; also published as Today's Hobos Ride in Style. Chicago Tribune, Monday May 17, p.8; and Yuppies Hitch Ride as Weekend Hobos with Credit Cards Aboard. Atlanta Constitution, Sunday, May 23, D/10.

Maynard, Lawrence, et al. 1929. Stories of Tramp Life. Haldeman-Julius Co., Girard, Kansas, (^#1412 in the little blue book series)

McBride, Stewart Dill. 1975. "The Last of the Old-Time Hoboes". The Christian Science Publishing Company. Available online.

McCook, John. A Tramp Consensus and its Revelations. Forum 15 1893: 753-61.

---. Leaves from the Diary of a Tramp III. The Independent 1902: 3009-13.

---. Leaves from the Diary of a Tramp IV. The Independent LIV, no. 2770 1902: 23-8.

---. Leaves from the Diary of a Tramp VI. The Independent LIV, no.2775 1902: 332-7.

---. Some New Phases of The Tramp Problem. The Charities Review, Vol 1 no.8 355-364.

McLane, Jeff. 2023. "Hopping Freights the Old-Fashioned Way". Enterprise-Record [Chico, CA], July 8.

Available online.

McMurry, Donald. 1929. Coxey's Army. Seattle: University of Washington Press, reprinted in 1968.

McPherson, James and Miller Williams editors. 1976. Railroad: Trains and Train People in American Culture. New York: Random House.

McWilliams, Carey. 1969. Farmers in the Field. Hamden, CT: Archon.

Means, E. The Youngest Hobo: a Story of Survival.

Meier, Eric. 2024. "Why Isn't Michigan More Popular with Vagabonds and Trainhoppers?", WJIM, May 16, 2024. wjimam.com/ixp/45/p/michigan-freight-train-hoppers.

Short article about the lack of through-routes in Michigan and a look at the musician Omo the Hobo.

Melone, J. Nature: Human and Real. Chicago, IL: privately published.

Meredith, Mamie. 1932. Waddies and Hoboes of the Old West. American Speech, April, pp. 257-60.

Meriwether, Lee. 1889. The Tramp at Home. New York: Harper & Brothers, 296 pages. Available online at "archive.org/details/athometramp00meririch".

Metz, Craig. 2004. Jumping Someone Else's Train, for Metro Santa Cruz.

Metzger, Wendell. 1994. Hobo Story. Manhattan Beach, CA: Softspin Press, 108 pages. Contact: Softspin Press, Box 277, Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-0277.

A fictionalized account of a trip around the US in 1940.

Michell, Jim. 1990. A Nickel for Bread. Prairie Grove Books

Milburn, George. The Hobo's Hornbook: A Repertory for a Gutter Jongleur. New York: Ives Washburn.

---. 1930a. Hobos and Harlots.

---. 1930b. Poesy in the Jungles. American Mercury, May, pp.80-86.

Miles, Dione. 1986. Something in Common — An IWW Bibliography. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

The definitive bibliography about the I.W.W.

Miller, Ellen. 1994. Ax Attack in Freight Car Kills Hobo, Injures Two, Police Say, for the Denver CO Post, April 19, B/4.

A report about how a hobo was killed and two others were injured when they were attacked with an ax by their traveling companions and thrown off the freight train near Parachute, Colorado on April 16.

Millionaire Hobo is Dead. Christian Century, August 20, 1930, p. 1020.

Mitchell, Jim. 1990. ...a Nickel for Bread. Minnesotta, Prairie Groove Books.

Mooty, Kyle. 1998. "Keeping Active is Chenowith's Game", Dothan Eagle. March 30. Available at dothaneagle.com/eufaula_tribune/news/keeping-active-is-chenoweth-s-game/article_75099fa0-345a-11e8-8bca-9f24aecc4ece.html.

A short Alabama newspaper article about the life and adventures of a 99-year-old local man, Lee Chenowith, who, among other things, in 1937, hopped on board a freight train to visit a classmate in Chicago, almost 300 miles from home. Hiding behind the coal car and dodging steam all the way, Lee made it to Chicago. From there, he boarded another train to Minneapolis. He would make it to Yellowstone National Park by "bumming" a ride on a bread truck.

Morton, Danelle. 2013. "A World on Fire: Life and Death in a New Orleans Squat", Boston Review. January 1, 2012. Available online at "www.bostonreview.net/danelle-morton-new-orleans-squat-fire".

The story of the December, 2010 warehouse squat fire in New Orleans in which eight punk squatters/train riders (aged 18 to 29) died. The author is the mother of a young woman who was in the scene and knew some of those who died in the fire. A well-written, in-depth, and heartfelt account of the lives of those involved and the events leading up to the fire. BPS.

Mosedale, Mike. 2004. The Real Grand Excursion, for the Twin Cities' City Pages.

Mull, Teresa. 2019. "A Hobo's Song: Philipsburg's Luther Gette, 'King of the Hobos', Reflects on a Life of Hopping Freight Trains - with His PhD in French Lit Along for the Ride". Town & Gown Magazine, December 31. Available online.

This is a shorter magazine article that preceded the book by the same name published two years later.

---. 1925. Adventures of a Scholar-Tramp. The Century Company, New York and London. 312 pp.

This is a fine example of a fairly literate writer describing a season of the tramp's life, with a little work at the end in order to return to his hometown of Chicago with some money in his pocket. Mullen spends the first half of his journey with his mentor Frisco, tramping from Chicago to the east coast, and then eventually returns to his starting point in a more roundabout way by himself. The author makes a clear distinction between tramps (who scorn work and strive for excellence in begging their way) and hobos (who work and pay their own way - except when traveling by train).

A collection of anecdotes about the Great Depression. Seems to have only one brief reference to train riding on pg. 55.

Newhouse, Edward. 1934. You Can't Sleep Here. McCauley Company, New York.

A Depression-era novel in which a newspaper reporter loses his job and soon finds himself evicted, living in "Hoovervilles" and riding freight trains. Very rare but can be read online at babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b244096.

Nichols, Larry O. 2011. A Hobo Odyssey. Warren Publishing. Dallas.

A fictional "depression-era tale of two men who take up the hobo life in search of adventure and what happens when these two men's path crosses with that of a schizophrenic serial killer, who is murdering hoboes on the very same route".

Noble, C. W. 1896-7. The Borderland of Trampdom. Popular Science Monthly, pp. 252-58.

Norris, Lowell. 1933. America's Homeless Army. Scribner's Magazine, pp. 316-18.

Nylander, Towne. 1924. The Migratory Population of the United States. American Journal of Sociology, September, pp. 129-53.

Nylander, Towne. 1925. Tramps and Hoboes. Forum, August, pp. 227-37.

O., Jesse. 1996. American Railroad Hobo: The Travels of Wade Hampton Fullbright. Anderson, NC: Ballington Books.

O'Connell, Pamela LiCalzi. 1998. A Different Breed of Freighthoppers, for the New York Times, Aug. 20

O'Donnell, John. 1938. Hobo Lore. New York: WPA, unpublished document in Library of Congress, Washington D.C. Archive of Folk Song.

O'Kasick, Jeremy. 2003. Long Gone, for the Twin Cities City Pages.

A review of David Eberhardt and Jack Cahill's film "Long Gone".

Olds, Elizabeth. 1948. Riding the Rails. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Otten, Allen. 1976. End of the Line. Wall Street Journal, December 26.

Outland, George. 1939. Boy Transiency in America. California: Santa Barbara State College Press.

Overbeck, Charles. 2017. The Tramp Printers. Eberhardt Press, Portland, OR, 2017

History of the profession of tramp printers. It seems evenhanded and pretty comprehensive, though, and brings attention to some people who don't get that much attention in hobo literature, including a chapter specifically on women. Focuses a lot on the politics of the profession.

A collection of articles about boy transients of the 1930s.

Page, Thomas. 1884. Bohemian Life or the Autobiography of a Tramp. Available online at "archive.org/details/bohemianlifeorau00page".

Pager, George. 1949. The Hobo News. New York Folkore Quarterly, Autumn, pp. 228-230.

Paine, Samuel. 1917. Ditching the Hobo. Railroad Man's Magazine, April, pp. 529-45.

Parker, Carlton H. 1915. The California Casual and His Revolt. Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, pp. 110-26.

---. 1920. The Casual Laborer and Other Essays. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Howe, 199 pages. Available online at "archive.org/details/casuallaboreroth00parkiala".

Partch, Harry. 1991. Bitter Music: Collected Journals.

Patric, John. "Hobo Years". Unpublished manuscript.

Scanned copy available from the Everett Public Library.

Paul, Louis. 1936. Horse in Arizona. Doubleday Doran and Co., New York.

A novel of the travels of two friends after returning from World War 1. It has been described as, "Perhaps less of a hobo book than a book of many unsuccessful attempts to be hobos".

Paul, Rodman, W. 1988. The Far West and Great Plains in Transition, 1859-1900. New York: Harper and Row.

Paulsen, David. 2003. Art or vandalism, railcar graffiti roll across land, for the Wausau WI Daily Herald.

Payne, Roger. 1918. The Hobo Philosopher or The Philosophy of the Natural Life. Fellowship Farm, Puente, CA: published by the author. Available online (read only) at "babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=dul1.ark:/13960/t8ff57k0x;view=1up;seq=1".

---. 1939. Why Work? or, The Coming Age of Leisure and Plenty: Why Work Six Days a Week, When You Can Make Your Living by Working One?. Boston: Meador Publishing Company, 404 pages. Includes portraits and references.

Written in response to requests for fuller facts and figures supporting the authors earlier pamphlet The Hobo Philosopher.

Pease, Howard. 1953. Road Kid: Teen Agers on the Prowl (Originally published as The Dark Adventure). Bantam Books.

Paperback, small section of book is on freight hopping.

Peele, John R. 1907. From North Carolina to Southern California Without a Ticket, and How I Did It, Giving My Exciting Experiences as a Hobo. Tarboro?, NC: Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, 134 pages. Includes illustrations and portraits. Available online at "archive.org/details/fromnorthcarolin00peelrich".

The account includes a lot of historical details of great interest to the hobo historian, and the guy seems to be quite human, although his racist attitudes which were typical of the time crop up on occasion.

Peery, Nelson. 1994. Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary. New Press.

A first hand account of a black hobo in the 1930s and later experiences during WWII.

Phelps, Richard. 1983. Songs of the American Hobo. Journal of Popular Culture, Fall, pp. 1-21.

A well-informed article on the subject — hobo and I.W.W. songs.

---. 2019. "Following the Moniker Trail: Hobo Graffiti and the Strange Tale of Jack London, Skysail and A-No. 1", Boom California. October 17. Available online at boomcalifornia.com/2019/10/17/following-the-moniker-trail-hobo-graffiti-and-the-strange-tale-of-jack-london-skysail-and-a-no-1.

Pinkerton, Allan. 1878. Strikers, Communists, Tramps and Detectives. New York: Trows; G. W. Carlton & Co.; Arno Press; and The New York Times. Available online at "archive.org/details/strikerscommunis00pinkuoft".

Piovesan, Anthony and Heath Parkes-Hupton. "Men Who Tried to Flee Victoria in Perth-bound Freight Train Sent Back Across the Border". NCA NewsWire. July 17, 2020. Available online.

Article about four men who tried to stowaway in a freight train from Melbourne to Perth and were sent back after a court appearance in Adelaide.

Pirro, J.F. 2024. "Hobo Life: A Look into one Delaware County man's hobo lifestyle", Mainline Today. January 16.

A reporter interviews the hobo "Burma-Shave" shortly before his passing.

Platinum Mike. 2016. The Hobo Who Couldn't Catch a Train. with photos by Matt Shulte.

Pool, Bob. 1990. It's a Jungle Out There. Los Angeles Times, January 24, B/3.

A report on a developer's plans to erect on office building on the restaurant site where The National Hobo Association held its meetings. The effects of this and some member profiles were given.

Poplak, Lorna. 2021. No Fixed Address: The History of Hoboes in Ontario. TVO (a Toronto public broadcaster). August 17. Available online at www.tvo.org/article/no-fixed-address-the-history-of-hoboes-in-ontario.

A short online about the history of hobos in Canada, all likely done through secondary online research but interesting mainly because of the local (Ontario and Toronto) focus.

Power, Matthew. 2000. Trainhopping, for Blue: The Adventure Lifestyle.

Powers, William F. 1994. The Crusty Life. The Washington Post, January 2, E/2.

Powers discussed the articles in the January 1994 issues of Esquire [see Ferguson 1994] and Texas Monthly. which discussed modern hobo life and life in Mexico City respectively.

Propes, C.B. and S.C. n.d. (2011?). The Hobo Diaries. no publisher, printed in Lexington, KY (a print on demand book).

Poorly written, poorly organized, and all in all a poor excuse for a book, but it does have a few first hand descriptions of panhandling and jails from the 1930s that would be of interest to some readers.

This looks like it could be an interesting book. Unfortunataely, it is so far only available as an e-book (Kindle).

Quist, Wayne. 2010. God's Angry Man, The Incredible Journey of Private Joe Haan. Dallas: Brown Books Publishing Group, 403 pp.

This one is a biography describing the life of a man who had a very difficult time in childhood, being essentially orphaned at the age of five and indentured into unpaid work on a farm in Minnesota during the 1930s. He left there to bum around the country for a few years, which are described and illustrated with quotations from other people's memoirs and the stories he had related to his family, mostly via letters. He later spent about 18 months at a CCC camp in the north woods before enlisting in the Army after Pearl Harbor, and his combat experiences are also recounted in Europe. After the war he ended up working on the high iron for over 30 years, building many large buildings in the Houston area. The interesting aspect of this book is the fact that Mr. Haan was clearly a very intelligent person, and more importantly, an independent thinker, a characteristic of many who ride the rails for any length of time. The book also has many of his poems in it. This book does not have a lot of detail about hoboing, but is still significant because it describes in detail the personality of the individual hobo.

Rahimian, Afsaneh. 1990. Migration and Mobility of the Urban Homeless. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California.

Rankin, Bill. 1993. A Lasting Legal Legacy. Atlanta Journal Constitution, January 1, E/1.

A profile of former Gwinnett County, GA Superior Court Judge Bryant Huff, who after serving thirteen years as a lawyer, spent two months riding the rails.

Reckless, Walter. 1934. Why Women Become Hoboes. American Mercury, February, pp. 175-80.

Reed, Christopher. 1991. Racist Killers Ride U.S. Freight Trains. Guardian, December 19, p. 9.

Reed discussed the [faction of the] F.T.R.A. (Freight Train Riders of America), that appear to be a neo-nazist group of hoboes who ride and kill predominantly across the western states of the U.S. Reed cited that the recent attention given to this group was due to the arrest of Jeremy "Low Road" Abshire, a member of the white supremacist group, charged with murdering two people in Utah.

Reisz, Matthew. 2018. The academic hopped a freight train to live and learn with drifters. Times Higher Education. May 18, 2018. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/academic-who-hopped-freight-train-live-and-learn-drifters

A review of Jeff Ferrall's book Drift: Illicit Mobility and Uncertain Knowledge.

---. 1932. Following the Monkey. (unpublished ms. at U of IL?)

Rex. 2000. Riding the Rails From K.C. to Texas, for the San Francisco Examiner.

Richards, Stan, et al. Hobo Signs.

Ringenbach, Paul T. 1973. Tramps and Reformers, 1873-1916: The Discovery of Unemployment in New York. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Originally a Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1970.

Risen, James. 1989. American Album. Los Angeles Times, June 12, I/4.

A profile of Maury "Steam Train" Graham.

Roddan, Andrew. 1932. Canada's Untouchables: the Story of the Man without a Home. Vancouver, 111 pp.

Rodgers, Otis . 1950. Hobo from Texas. 64 pages, Verse & Prose.

Rogers, John. 2016. "Anthropologist follows trail of century-old hobo graffiti in LA", Southern California Public Radio. May 30. www.scpr.org/news/2016/05/30/61141/anthropologist-follows-trail-of-century-old-hobo-g/.

Short article on Susan Phillip's groundbreaking research discoveries of old hobo graffiti in Los Angeles.

Romines, Delma K. 1983. Hobo Nickels. American Heritage, August/September, pp. 81-3.

A brief discussion of George Washington Bo Hughes' work with thirteen photographed examples.

Romines, Joyce and Slickrock. 1996. The Hobo Nickel Book. 135 pages. Includes over 400 photos and hobo glossary. Contact: Joyce Ann Romines, P.O. Box 1585, Tucker, Georgia 30085-1586.

Rood, H. E. 1898. The Tramp Problem: A Remedy. Forum, March, pp. 90-94.

Roos, David. 2016. Still Riding the Rails: Life as a Modern Hobo. How Stuff Works. Available online at people.howstuffworks.com/still-riding-the-rails-life-modern-hobo.htm.

Short article interviewing some attendees at the Britt Hobo Convention and, more interestingly, "Dirty" a modern-day train rider.

Rose, Lionel. 1988. Rogues and Vagabonds. Vagrant Underwold in Britain 1815-1985. New York and London: Routledge, 254 pages. Includes a tramp glossary, abbreviations, notes, references, index, and a select bibliography.

A socio-historical account of the germane aspects of tramp life in Great Britain, e.g.. tramp subtypes, legislation, relief, lodging houses, and casual wards.

Rose, Megan. 2017. "Kafka in Vegas", Pro-Publica. May 26. Available at www.propublica.org/article/alford-pleas-fred-steese-conviction-without-admitting-guilt.

An investigative article in an online journal about a man, Fred Steese, who spent 21 years in prison falsely convicted of murder even when the prosecutor had evidence that he had a solid alibi - he had been busted riding the rails many hundreds of miles away and was in jail at the time of the murder. A story reminiscent of the story of Dog Man Tony told in the movie Long Gone. At the end, after being released from prison in 2013 and looking for a job, Steese, "jumped into the first boxcar to Utah" trying to get hired as a truck driver.

---. (editor). 2002. Joe Hill: The IWW and the Making of a Revolutionary Working Class Subculture. Charles H. Kerr Publishing, Chicago. 656p.

A comprehensive history of the life and times of famous Wobbly organizer Joe Hill.

Roy, Donald Francis. 1935. Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle. unpublished Masters thesis, University of Washington, 98 pages

Rozeboom, Sarah. 2003. buZ blurr exhibit is a sharp study in contrast, for the Northwest Arkansas Times.

Russell, C.D. 1945. Pete the Tramp.

Ryals, Mitch. 2015. "Derailed", Inlander. May 15. Available at www.inlander.com/spokane/derailed/Content?oid=2457742.

A shortish online article highlighting the dangers of train riding. An interesting but sad focus on a guy who lost his leg when he fell off a freight car.

Saine, Deb. 2003. Real hobos ride the rails as a way of life, for the Logansport IN Pharos-Tribune.

Samolar, Charlie. 1927. The Argot of the Vagabond. American Speech, pp. 385-92.

The definitions, distinctions, development and theories of origin of various hobo words and phrases are given.

Samra, Cal. 1981. "Local railroader uncovers the REAL Herby". Battle Creek Enquirer. January 22.

A columnist for the newspaper in Battle Creek, MI writes about a local Grand Trunk Western RR conductor, Cezar Tyjewski, who has been long obsessed with finding out who was making the famous "Herby" monikers, even taking out ads in union newsletters and doing other research. Shortly after his retirement, "Herby" (Herbert Mayer) contacted Tyjewski and they became friends.

---. 1981a. "The face behind Herby is finally unmasked". Battle Creek Enquirer. January 30.

A week after his first "Up the Creek" column on the long search for Herby, the author has interviewed Herbert Mayer and writes a human interest article, including mentioning that Mayer plans to attend the National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa that coming August.

Sandburg, Carl. 1952. Prairie-Town Boy. Harcourt, Brace And Company, New York.

This is a memoir beginning with his birth in Galesburg, IL, with one chapter of going on the bum for a summer working the wheat harvest in 1897. Not to be compared to Jack London, but quite readable. Available online.

---. 1953. Always the Young Strangers. New York: Harcourt, Brace

San Francisco Chronicle. 1906. The Hunted Prince of Tramps: Strange History of "Seldom Seen" Most Versatile of Hoboes, Once a Well to-do Lawyer, whose mania for defacing cars has cost the Pullman Co. a Fortune. May 20. A pdf version of the article can be downloaded here.

A sensational article about the supposed exploits of the tramp "Seldom Seen". Entertaining, in particular given the lasting debate about freight train graffiti over a hundred years later.

Saroyan, William. 1928. "Portrait of a Bum", Overland Monthly. December, pp. 421 and 424.

Saul, Vernon alias K.C. Slim. 1929. The Vocabulary of Bums. American Speech, June, pp. 337-46.

A record of over three hundred fifty words and phrases commonly used by the knights of the road.

Schmidt, Michelle. 2019. "Making their mark: father-son team documents hobo era graffiti", Inland 360. September 19. Available online.

Schockman, Carl. 1937. We Turned Hobo. Columbus, OH: F.J. Heer Printing Co.

Schofield, Matthew. 1998. Hobos hope for peace with railroad, for the Kansas City MO Star.

Schwantes, Carlos. 1985. Coxey's Army: An American Odyssey. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Although not specifically about hobos and hoboing, this account of the first march on Washington is a good historical overview of the late 19^th century as it relates to the world of the hobo at that time. Parallels with later political protest movements in the 1930s, 1960s, and the more recent Occupy Wall Street protests are thought provoking to say the least. There are some interesting descriptions of the various groups of unemployed men as they attempted to cross all or large portions of America to rendezvous in Washington, D.C. on May Day of 1894. The varied nature of their receptions along the way by local and federal authorities as well as the citizenry of small towns and large cities reflects the same ambivalence we see today for similar disadvantaged groups. DL.

Searles, Cali. 2010. Ethnography of Punk Rock Anarchist Hobos. Periphery 47, Drake University. Des Moines. Available online at "michaeljcarbaugh.com/periphery47/fictionnonfiction.html".

Seeger, Pete. 1972. The Incompleat Folksinger. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Seelye John. 1963. The American Tramp: A Version of the Picaresque. American Quarterly, Winter, pp. 535-53.

Service, Robert. 1921. The Collected Poems of Robert Service. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.

Sevareid, Eric. 1946. Not So Wild a Dream.

A memoir from the 1930s. Sevareid was a well known journalist in later years.

Shaw, Clifford. The Jack Roller: A Delinquent Boy's Own Story. Sociological Case History.

Sheil, Richard. On Trek. The Outlook of Missions Feb 1940: 57-59.

Shen, Maxine. 2018. Secret "hobo codes" revealed: Pictograph language used by homeless travelers hopping trains in the 1800s shows how they warned each other of well-guarded homes and how to dodge cops — and they're still being used today. Daily Mail. Nov. 6. See article.

Sherman, Leonie. 2006. Railway Renegades, for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Sibley, Celestine. 1995. Life in the '30s: Hobo at the Door, Possum in the Pot. Atlanta Constitution, March 20, C/1.

Sibley shared a letter from an old friend who lived during the Great Depression.

---. 1989. Ex-Hobo Shares His Lifelong Loves. Atlanta Constitution, June 26, D/1.

A feature about John Smally Smolka, a seventy-eight year-old former hobo (for about ten years) and baseball aficionado.

Silber, Irin and Ethel Raim (editors). 1970. American Favorite Ballads: Tunes and Songs as Sung by Pete Seeger.

Silverman, Rena with photographs by Emily Kask. 2016. Hopping Freight Trains with the Dirty Kids. New York Times. March 8. Available online at "lens.blogs.nytimes.com".

The article is a short introduction to an online album by an art school student featuring 19 photos of a group of dirty kids as they travel around on trains and hitch hiking.

Sinclair, Andrew. 1963. The Hallelujah Bum. London: Faber and Faber.

Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine. 1975. Riding the Rails with Utah Phillips and Bodie Wagner. Volume 24, No. 3. August/September.

An article transcribed from a tape recording Utah Phillips made while walking around in the BN Spokane freight yard, talking about experiences riding freights and meeting some riders about to catch out on the ^#82 time freight to Minneapolis. The article includes photos and lyrics to a couple of songs.

Smith, Aaron Lake. 2012. Death of the American Hobo: The National Hobo Convention reaches the end of the line. Vice Magazine, October. Available online at "www.vice.com/read/death-of-the-american-hobo-0012987-v19n10".

A well-written article about the author's travels from the west coast to the 112^th National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa. Unlike some uncritical mainstream journalists who visit Britt, Smith soon comes to understand what a sham the conservative religious small town festival has become. He even mentions trampfest, the alternative hobo convention, organized starting in 2000 by train riders who couldn't take Britt's phoniness any longer. BPS.

Smith, F. Hopkinson. A Gentleman Vagabond and Some Others. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1895.

Smith, Jack. 1989. Bum Rap. Los Angeles Times, July 16, M/2.

Smith accounted his adventures of the summer he spent as a hobo riding the rails.

---. 1989. Hobo Is King on Social Scale of Itinerants. Los Angeles Times, September 6, V/ 1.

Smith discussed the hobo lifestyle and the differences between a hobo, bum and vagabond.

Solenberger, Alice W. 1911. One Thousand Homeless Men. Charities Publication Committee.

Sorrel, Robert. 2019. "Bristol, Other Towns, Likely Saw Share of Hobos", Bristol Herald-Courier. June 10.

Short not so substantive newspaper article referencing hobos in Bristol's (VA) past and not finding any evidence of them at the present time.

---. 2019. "Mark Nichols - aka 'Hobo Shoestring' - Finds Freedom, Danger in Train Hopping". Bristol Herald Courier, June 9. Available online.

Speek, Peter A. 1917. The Psychology of Floating Workers. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, pp. 72-78.

Speier, Tim. "The Only Currency that Matters: A Story of Modern Day Hobos". Park Rapids Enterprise, September 17, 2021. Available online.

Spence, Clark. 1971. Knights of the Tie and Rail — Tramps and Hoboes in the West. Western Historical Quarterly, January, pp. 5-16.

---. 1976. Knights of the Fast Freight. American Heritage, August, pp.50-57.

Spielmann, Peter. 1979. Hobos. Penthouse, May, pp. 138-45.

Spud. 1896. "The Hobo: A Protest", Iron Molders Journal. Vol. 32. No. 10 Page 423.

In the October, 1896 issue of this union publication there is a letter to the editor raising some criticisms of hobos by "Spud" emphasizing their general laziness and proclivity to spend any charity provided to them on drink. In the following month's issue (No. 11, November) there is a spirited response objecting to Spud's letter and defending hobos (P. 474). This is followed in the next issue (No. 12, December) by more letters (Pages 518-19) both defending hobos and confirming some of "Spud's" criticisms. A writer considers how a union man should treat a hobo and a couple writers distinguish between "good" and "bad" hobos (even back in 1896 oogles were blowing up the spot!). Available to read at this site.

St. John, Vincent. 1919. The I.W.W.. Chicago, IL: I.W.W.

Staats, William. 1879. A Tight Squeeze or the Adventures of a Gentleman.... Available online at "archive.org/details/tightsqueezeorad00staaiala".

Starke, Barbara. 1931. Born in Captivity: The Story of a Girl's Escape. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merril Company.

Stegner, Wallace. 1975. Depression Pop. Esquire, September, pp. 79-83.

Stein, Walter, J. 1973. California and the Dust Bowl Migration. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Stessin, Lawrence. 1940. That Vanishing American: The Hobo. New York Times Magazine, August 18.

Stevens, Irving, L. 1982. Fishbones: Hoboing in the 1930's. Corinna: Self-publihshed.

Stevens, James. 1925. The Hobos Apology. Century Magazine, February, pp. 464-72.

Stewig, John W. 1978. Sending Messages. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 64 pages with illustrations.

The many possible ways to send messages, including language, music, mime, dance, Morse code, cattle brands, deaf hand language, hobo signs, and referee signals are described [juvenile literature].

Stiff, Dean. 1930. The Milk and Honey Route. New York: The Vanguard Press.

Stranger on A Train — Ted Conover Spent Rootless Months Studying A Furtive Breed: America's Hoboes. People Magazine, 1984. [see Conover 1984]

Strickland, Ron. 1990. Whistlepunks & Geoducks: Oral Histories from the Pacific Northwest.

This collection of interviews of (mostly) old timers has one featuring Monte Holm, the hobo who later came to own his own railroad. Again, this is a minor part of the book, but also quite readable. Many of the interviews were of people who had to make do with what life handed them and thus shared many of the traits associated with hobos. Available online.

Stroup, Sheila. 1994. Hobnobber Once a Hobo. The Times-Picayune, February 6, B/1.

Stroup talked about New Orleans entrepreneur, philanthropist and civic activist Bryan Bell, who rode freight trains and hitchhiked across the country as a child hobo during the Great Depression.

Sutherland, Edwin H. and Harvey J. Locke. 1936. Twenty Thousand Homeless Men. Chicago and Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co.

Swick, Thomas (Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinal). 1992. Britt, Iowa: End of the line for America's rambling hobos. The Sacramento Bee, Dec. 2, 1992.

Swift, Morrison. 1895. Tramps as Human Beings. Outlook, August 31, pp. 342-43.

Symanski, Richard. 1979. Hobos, freight trains and me. Canadian Geographer. Vol. 23, 2, June. Pages 110-118.

An article, published in a Canadian academic journal, recalling the author's travels with hobos in the 1970s, a period relatively little documented in hobo literature. Entertaining, more a personal recollections/anecdotes than academic research.

Symmank, Margaret. 1994. The Hobo and the Lucky Piece. Houston Chronicle, March 13, TM/4.

Symmank reminisced about her childhood and the stories she was told about her grandmother feeding the hobos who came to the door during the Great Depression.

Taft, Philip. 1960. The I.W.W. in the Grain Belt. Labor History, Winter, pp. 53 - 67.

Tascheraud, Henri. 1925. The Art of Bumming a Meal. American Mercury, June, pp. 183-87.

Taylor, Nelson. 1998. Stealing Rides, for Bikini.

Thanet, Octave. 1878-9. The Tramp in Four Centuries. Lippincott's Magazine, pp. 565-74

Octave Thanet was a pen name for Alice French, a novelist and short story writer who mainly published in the late 1800s.

The Great Historical Bum: An Introduction to Hobo Folklore. Come All Ye, October-December 1975.

The Most Arrested American. 1925. Literary Digest, July 11, pp. 50-55.

The Philadelphia Tramp Conference, 1903. Charities, November 28, pp. 514-15.

"The South Calling A Halt on Tramps." 1916. Survey, February 5. p.534.

This is a Primer for Hobo "Gaycats". 1937. Life, October 4, pp. 14-17.

Toth, Jennifer. 1993. The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City. Chicago Review Press.

Tripp, Valerie. 2001. Kit Saves the Day. American Girl Publishing, Inc. Middleton, WI.

An illustrated children's book about a young girl during the Great Depression who wanders into a hobo jungle and ends up riding the rails with the hoboes she meets.

Troyer, Milo C.. 1996. Hobo with a Briefcase. Wawaka, Indiana.

Tudor, Silke. 2001. Railroaded, for sfweekly.com.

Tugwell, Rexford. 1920. The Casual Laborer , Survey, July 3, pp. 472-74.

---. 1920. The Casual of the Woods. Survey, July 3, pp. 472-74.

Tully, Jim. 1924. Beggars of Life: A Hobo Autobiography. New York: Albert & Charles Boni, and Random House, 336 pages. Also published by Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City, NJ.

---. 1925. The Lion-Tamer. American Mercury, October, pp. 142-46.

---. 1927. Bull Horrors. American Mercury, October, pp. 144-50.

---. 1928. Thieves and Vagabonds. American Mercury, May, pp. 18-24.

Tyler, Robert L. 1967. maxx. Eugene: University of Oregon Books.

Van Swol, Erwin. 1960. The Hoboes' Secret Code. Coronet, August, pp. 35-38.

After a friend pointed out to Van Swol that his house was marked by hoboes due to his wife's generosity, he began to research hobo signs. Twenty signs are pictured in this article with respective descriptions. Hobo history, the supposed causes of the hobo condition, and the dissemination of hobo symbols and code are discussed briefly.

Vaughn, J. B. 1975. The Wandering Years. Hancock House.

Color glossy trade paperback, good photos, some do it yourself projects, and a very brief commentary on the tramps and hobos who made the original art.

Vollmann, William T. 2008. Riding Toward Everywhere. ECCO/Harper Collins. 288 pages.

Vose, John D. 1981. Diary of a Tramp. St. Ives, Cornwall, U.K.: United Writers, 199 pages.

Wallace, Samuel E. 1965. Skid Row As A Way of Life. Totowa, NJ: Bedminster Press, 216 pages.

Walljasper, Jay. 1988. The World of the Hobo. Utne Reader, January/February, p.45.

Walter, Jess. 2020. The Cold Millions. Harper, New York.

An historical novel, set in 1909 in Spokane, Washington, focused on two young rail-riding tramps who get involved in the IWW free speech fights in Spokane. Has received excellent reviews.

Ward, Jim. 1979. The Street is Their Home: the Hobo's Manifesto. Melbourne: Quartet Books.

Warner, Jack. 1995. Kings of the Road. Atlanta Journal Constitution, November 19, M/1.

An article about the life and experiences of Russell Stephens, age 77, a Great Depression-era hobo. Stephens was a teacher of English and journalism at Cherokee County, GA High School, having retired in 1977.

Warner, Roger. 1976. Riding the Rails. Washington Post Jan. 25, F3-4.

Webb, John N. 1935. The Transient Unemployed: A Description and Analysis of the Transient Relief Population. Works Progress Administration Division of Social Research, Washington DC.

---. 1937. The Migratory-Casual Worker. Washington D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, United States Works Progress Administration, Division of Social Research, Research Monograph VII. Reprinted, 1971, New York: Da Capo Press.

This report is a byproduct of the studies of the transient unemployed conducted by the research section of the division of Research, Statistics, and Finance, during 1934 and 1935 [p. IX]. It offers profiles of the personal characteristics of the migratory-casual worker, and explains the types and characteristics of migratory casual employment (industrial/agricultural). Ten text tables, twenty-six figures and ten supplementary figures illustrate statistical information and map migratory routes, patterns and types of work.

Weideman, Edward and R.W. Crump. A Hobo Life in the Great Depression: A Regional Narrative.

Weil, Robert S. 2011. Teenage Hobo: My Brothers Keeper. Xlibris, Bloomington.

Welsh, Herbert. 1921. The New Gentlemen of the Road. Philadelphia, Wm F. Fell. Available online at "archive.org/details/newgentlemanofro00wels".

Welty, Gus. 1994. Review of Daniel Leen's "The Freighthopper's Manual". Railway Age, March, p.195.

Welty's unfavorable review condemns the book (and hoboes) for safety reasons and setting a bad example for youngsters and adolescents [see Leen 1992].

Westbury, G.H. 1930. Misadventures of a Working Hobo in Canada.

Weybright, Victor. 1939. Rolling Stones Gather No Sympathy. Survey Graphic, January.

Whisler, William. 1989. Hobos in a Model.

This is a first hand account of two young men's experiences working the wheat harvest in the mid 1920s. It includes descriptions of riding freights at the beginning and at the end of the two year period covered in the book. The book appears to have been privately published and has a library of congress catalog number: 89-83375.

Whitaker, Percy. 1929. Fruit Tramps. Century Magazine, March, pp. 599-606.

White, Richard. 1991. Its Your Misfortune and None of My Own. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

White, Sarah. 2017(?). In Search of the American Hobo. Research project, University of Virginia. Available at xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/White/hobo/intro.html.

An online research project, probably for a Masters thesis, with several short chapters. Undated.

Whiting, F.V. 1912. Trespassers Killed on Railways — Who Are They?. Scientific America, May 11, pp.303-4.

Whitten, George. 1928. The Open Road. Century Magazine, January, pp. 351-66.

---. 1929. Outlaw Trails. New York: Minton, Balch and Co.

---. 2017. Too Late To Turn Back Now. Chimacum: Empty Bowl Press.

A collection from Wilcox's other hard-to-find books along with new poems and prose pieces.

Willard, Josiah Flynt See Flynt, Josiah.

Willeford, Charles Ray. 1988. I Was Looking for a Street. Woodstock, VT: Charles Willeford Countryman Press.

A memoir from the 1930s.

Williams, Louis. 1926. Hobos Rich and Poor. 36 pp. (collection of poems?)

Williams, Vinnie. 1957. The Fruit Tramp. New York: Harper, 247 pages.

Willmans, Karl. 1902. Psychoses Among Tramps. Centralblatt fur Nervenheilkunde, December.

Willwerth, James. 1988. Hoboes from High-Rent Districts. Time, July 11, p.8.

Willwerth looked at hoboing from the viewpoint of The National Hobo Association, co-founded by California actor Bobb "Santa Fe Bo" Hopkins, and the vehemently opposing Association of American Railroads which declared these hobo-hobbyists part of a dangerous trend. SJ.

Wilson, Marvin Brooks. 1982. To Tame the Iron Horse: a Hobo's Journal.

Wise, Ken C. 1992. Depression Bums. Fowlerville, Michigan, Wilderness Adventure Books.

Witten, George. 1928. The Open Road: The Autobiography of a Hobo.

---. 1929. Outlaw Trails: A Yankee Hobo Soldier of Queen. New York: Minton Balch. 252 pp.

This one I particularly enjoyed. Witten had a wild boyhood and ran away from home at about the age of 10, eventually hooking up with an older hobo who teaches him the ropes for a couple of years. Eventually his older pal enlists to fight the Spanish in Cuba and Witten is too young to fight. He then ships out on a cattle boat to Africa and jumps ship there, hoping to enlist with the British Army and fight in the Boer War. This he eventually manages to do, inspite of being only 14 years of age. His accounts of army life during the Boer War are quite interesting as well, but involve cattle rustling and a lot of other dodgy activities, including spending three months in prison there. The story ends abruptly when he returns home to the hills of Tennessee but it is quite picaresque while it lasts.

Woehlke, Walter. 1914. The Porterhouse Heaven and the Hobo. Technical World Magazine, August, pp. 808-13, 938.

Woirol, Gregory R. 1992. In the Floating Army, F.C. Mills on Itinerant Life in California, 1914. Univ. of Illinois Press.

Worth, Cedric. 1929. "The Brotherhood of Man". North American Review. April 1929, pp. 487-92.

Available here with a library account.

Wren, Daniel A. 1987. White Collar Hobo: The Travels of Whiting Williams. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 165 pages. Includes portraits, index, and bibliography.

Wright, Capt. Wm. J. 2002. Hobo to Leatherneck: Memoirs of Travel and Adventure. Vantage Press, NY.

This is another first-person memoir, written in short chapters , some less than a page. It describes growing up on a rural farm in S. Carolina and his eventual decision to hit the road when school failed to inspire him and work on the farm was an obvious dead end. He describes riding a few freights, but eventually applies for a job selling magazine subscriptions, traveling across the USA with a group of young men in cars and selling door to door. After a year or so of this he somehow decided to join the US Marines, and from that point the book describes his military experiences, including a hitch in North China before the war and then in the Pacific Theater during WWII. This is not particularly well written and does not have any especially unusual hobo or wartime experiences, but is readable for all that.

Wyckoff, Walter Augustus. 1901. A Day with a Tramp and Other Days. New York: C. Scribner. Reprinted 1971, New York: B. Blom, 191 pages. Available for viewing or download.

"In the summer of 1891, the author set out on a journey. He took roads and rails from Connecticut to California to get a better knowledge of the people and the country. He earned his living as a day laborer and continued it until, in the course of eighteen months, he had worked his way from Connecticut to California. Wyckoff later became a Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University, and he kept a notebook of his travels that became this book".

---. 1979. Hard Rock Epic: Western Miners and Industrial Revolution 1860-1910. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Yancey, Mrs. Dolly Kennedy. 1909. The Tramp Woman, a book of experiences. St Louis: Britt pub. Co.

Yates, Buster. Once a Hobo.

Yazell, Bryan. 2023. The American Vagrant in Literature: Race, Work and Welfare, Edinburgh, Scotland, Edinburgh University Press.

An academic book arguing, among other things, that, "the rapid development of anti-vagrancy laws in the late nineteenth century, written alongside widespread public fascination with 'tramps', facilitated a transatlantic dialogue between sources eager to modernise the state's ability to describe, catalogue and manage this roving population."