Hoboes Rich and Poor
$200
In stock
Description
Hoboes Rich and Poor — Rare Hobo Literature From Before The Movement’s Hey-Dey
Williams, Louis. Hoboes Rich and Poor. Seattle: [Unstated], 1926. First Edition.
Scarce first edition work of philosophical fiction, ambiguously and incorrectly described in the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture’s Hobo Bibliography as “(a collection of poems?)”. Seemingly written to furnish feelings of equality and the brotherhood of mankind, this unusual semi-Universalist tract takes the form of a likely invented conversation between narrator “Charley Grant” and “hobo philosopher” “Loveheart Gibson” on the nature of life, civilization, and God. Interestingly, this book was published prior to the Great Depression. Although hoboes had existed since Civil War veterans began train hopping in the 1860s, the subculture was far less visible and well-known prior to the economic hardship dramatically increasing the number of Americans living as tramps, hoboes, and other impoverished migrants in the 1930s.
8 copies listed in OCLC as of March 2020.
8vo, blue leatherette boards. Bottom spine bumped. Front pastedown and first free endpaper browned. Pages clean apart from four pin sized stains on title and opposing end paper. Illustrated throughout. Very good condition.
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