Overview

The most enduring version of the hobo that has come down from the so-called 'Golden Age of Tramping' (1890s to 1940s) is an American cultural icon, signifying freedom from restraint and rebellion to the established order while reinforcing conservative messages about American exceptionalism, individualism, race, and gender. Vagabonds, Tramps, and Hobos shows that this 'pioneer hobo' image is a misrepresentation by looking at works created by transient artists and thinkers, including travel literature, fiction, memoir, early feminist writing, poetry, sociology, political journalism, satire, and music. This book explores the diversity of meanings that accrue around 'the hobo' and 'the tramp'. It is the first analysis to frame transiency within a nineteenth-century literary tradition of the vagabond, a figure who attempts to travel without money. This book provide new ways for scholars to think about the activity and representation of US transiency.

Full Product Details

Author:   Owen Clayton (University of Lincoln)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Weight:   0.580kg
ISBN:  

9781009348089

ISBN 10:   1009348086
Pages:   358
Publication Date:   23 October 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Part I. Context: Introduction: hobohemia and the literary imperative; 1. From tramp to hobo: the representation of postbellum US transiency; Part II. The Vagabond and the Tramp: 2. In search of experience: vagabond travel narratives; 3. Vulnerable youth and hobosexuality in the work of Jack London and A-No.1; 4. 'That's why the lady is a tramp': the hidden story of female transiency; Part III. The Hobo Transformed: 5. Between hobohemia and academia: Nels Anderson's double voice; 6. 'The laureate of the logging camps': language, food and revolution in the work of T-Bone Slim; 7. 'I'm a hobo myself sometimes': African-American transiency in Black vernacular music; Conclusion: The end of the road? Transiency beyond the hobo.

Reviews

'An encyclopaedic tour of a now largely forgotten archive of hobo literature in the US … Clayton succeeds in his extraordinary effort to recover the stories of those obscured by popular hobo narratives.' Amy M. E. Morris, Times Literary Supplement

Author Information

Owen Clayton is a senior lecturer in English Literature at the University of Lincoln. He has written and edited several books, including Representing Homelessness (2021). He has been awarded Newberry Library and William P. Heidrich Fellowships, as well as the British Association of American Studies (BAAS) Ambassador's Award.

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