Beggars of Life

Book excerpt: This novelistic memoir impressed readers and reviewers with its remarkable vitality and honesty. Jim Tully left his hometown of St. Marys, Ohio, in 1901, spending most of his teenage years in the company of hoboes. Drifting across the country as a road kid, he spent those years scrambling into boxcars, sleeping in hobo jungles, avoiding railroad cops, begging meals from back doors, and haunting public libraries. Tully crafted these memories into a weird and astonishing chronicle of the American underclass, in this autobiographical novel published in 1924. Tully saw it all, from a church baptism in the Mississippi River to election day in Chicago. Tully's devotion to Mark Twain and Jack London taught him the importance of giving the reader a sense of place, and this he does brilliantly, again and again. Many saw the dark side of the American dream, but none wrote about it like Jim Tully. Jim Tully (June 3, 1886 - June 22, 1947) was a vagabond, pugilist, and American writer. Known as Cincinnati Red during his years as a road-kid, he counted prizefighter and publicist of Charlie Chaplin among his many jobs. He also memorably crossed paths with Jack London, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, and Langston Hughes. He is considered one of the inventors of the hard-boiled style of American writing.