Reference Collection
The following reference list includes books, articles, and zines on historic and modern-day hoboing/rail-riding culture. The list is vetted and validated by members of the U.S. rail-riding community as credible resources with authentic interpretations of hobo/rail-riding history and culture. Many of these resources are contributed by community member's original research. This reference list is continuously updated.
Adrian, Lynne Marie. Organizing the Rootless: American Hobo Subculture, 1893-1932. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Iowa, 1984.
Anderson, Nels. The Hobo: The Sociology of The Homeless Man. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1923.
Allsop, Kenneth. Hard Travellin': The Story of the Migrant Worker. London: Random House, 1994.
Anderson, Nels. On Hobos and Homelessness. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998.
Anderson, Paul. "Tramping with Yeggs." Atlantic Monthly, pp. 747-55. December, 1925.
Anthony Hiss and Rogers Whitaker. All Aboard with E.M. Frimbo: World's Greatest Railroad Buff. New York: Grossman Publishers/Viking, 1974.
Armitage, Susan and Elizabeth Jameson. The Women's West. London: The University of Oklahoma Press, 323 pages, 1987.
Armstrong, Clairette. Runaway Boys: Why Boys Desert Their Homes. Gorham Press, 208 pp., 1932.
Ashleigh, Charles. Rambling Kid. London: Faber, 1930.
Bahr, Howard M. Skid Row: An Introduction to Disaffiliation. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
Botkin, Benjamin Albert and F. F. Harlow. A Treasury of Railroad Folklore: The Stories, Tall Tales, Traditions, Ballads, and Songs of the American Railroad Man. New York: Crown Publishers, 530 pages, 1953.
Bruns, Roger. Knights of the Road: A Hobo History. London: Methuen Publishing, 1980.
Clifford Wallach and Michael Cornish. Tramp Art, One Notch at a Time. Northampton: Dave Irons Antiques, 1998.
Conover, Ted. Rolling Nowhere: A Young Man's Adventures Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes. New York: Viking Press, 1984.
Cotton, Eddy Joe. Hobo: A Young Man's Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America. New York: Harmony Books, 2002.
Cresswell, Tim. The Tramp in America. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2004.
Crouse, Joan M. The homeless transient in the Great Depression: New York State, 1929-1941. Albany State University of New York Press 1986.
DePastino, Todd. Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2003.
DeCaux, Len. Labor Radical: From the Wobblies to CIO. Boston, MA: Beacon Press/Unitarian Universalist Association, 1970.
Elmer Fox, Charles. Weeds and Other Good Things to Eat. West Plains: Corner Post Books, 1977.
Facciolo, Jay. The Wobs and the Bos: The IWW and the Hobo. Unpublished masters thesis. Hunter College of the City University of New York, 1977.
Feied, Frederick. No pie in the sky; the hobo as American cultural hero in the works of Jack London, John Dos Passos, and Jack Kerouac. New York the Citadel Press, 1964.
Fow, Terry. Hobo Signs: A Compilation of Hobo Signs for Those Who May One Day Find Them Useful. Munchen, Germany: Kunstraum Munchen, 1985.
Flynt, Josiah Willard. Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life. New York: Century Co., 1907.
Flynt, Josiah Willard. The Little Brother: A Story of Tramp Life. New York: Century Co., 1902.
Graham, Stephen. Tramping with a Poet in the Rockies. Minneapolis: D. Appleton & Company, 1922.
Graham, Stephen. The Gentle Art of Tramping. London: Bloomsbury Reader, 2019.
Graham Maury Steam Train and Robert J. Hemming. Tales of the Iron Rod, My Life as King of the Hobos. New York: Paragon House, 1990.
--- A History of Hoboes, Tramps, and other Vagabonds, Toledo, OH: Graham, 1985. 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.
Grajek, Dan. The Last Hobo: A Clueless Detroit Kid Hitchhikes Across America the Summer the Seventies Ran Out of Gas. Dearborn: Round Barn Media, 2016.
Gutman, Herbert. "Work, Culture, and Society in America, 1815-1919." American Historical Review, June 1973.
Gypsy Moon, Done & Been: Steel Rail Chronicles of American Hobos. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Hacha, Barbara. Mulligan Stew: Stories and Traditions of American Hobos. New York: MediaMix Productions, 2013.
Hapgood, Hutchins. Types From City Streets. New York: Garrett Press, 1910. Reprinted 1970, The Social History of Poverty: The Urban Experience Series, 379 pages with illustrations.
Harper, Douglas A. Good Company. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. The dialogue between Harper (a sociologist), his riding partner Carl (a hobo) and the various hoboes encountered during Harper's month-long field work riding the rails. It is presented according to the sequence of events. Harper's concerns were primarily work-related issues and the majority of the dialogue presented is about these topics along with alcohol, drugs, women and law.
--- The Homeless Man: An Ethnography of Work, Trains, and Booze. Ph.D. dissertation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Microfilms, 1976.
Henninger, Debra. Hobo Quilts: 55+ Original Blocks Based on the Secret Language of Riding the Rails. New York: F+W Media, 2010.
Higbie, Frank Tobias. Indispensable Outcasts: Hobo Workers and Community in the American Midwest, 1880-1930. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
Hobo News: February 1937-April 20,1948, published by Patrick Mulkern, Ben Hobo, "the Coast Kid" Benson - business manager. Featured articles, poems, cartoons, and occasionally songs about
politics, law enforcement, employment, and hobo life that catered to hobo culture (including hobo-sympathizers and hobo-intellectuals). It maintained and promoted a strongly pro-American viewpoint and also served as a political advocate on the behalf of hoboes.
Hobo Times: America's Journal of Wanderlust, published by the National Hobo Association (NHA) and distributed to NHA members approximately five times a year. Articles written by members are featured along with regular columns: Hobo Poetry and Lore, Letter from the NHA Director, Wheels and Whistles (personal tales from editor Buzz Potter), and a Classified section. Some articles are posted on the NHA Internet homepage. The NHA sponsors gatherings throughout the country.
Hoffman, Victor F. The American Tramp, 1870-1900. Masters thesis. University of Chicago, 1953.
Hurt, R. Douglas. The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 214 pages. Includes 16 leaves of plates, illustrations, maps, index, and bibliography, 1981.
Irwin, Godfrey. American Tramp and Underground Slang. Ann Arbor: Gryphon Books, 1971.
Iverson, Wayne. Hobo Sapien: Freight Train Hopping Tao and Zen. Bandon: Robert Reed Publishers, 2010.
Jury, Mark, "The Last American Romantic," Ambassador, March, pp. 46-52, 1979.
Keeley, Steve, ed., Hobo Life in America: Training Manual, Lansing, MI: Lansing Community College, 1986. An instructional text on the tradition of riding freight trains.
Kelly, E. The Elimination of the Tramp.
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. New York: Viking Press, 1957.
Kornbluh, Joyce L., editor, Rebel Voices: An I. W. W. Anthology, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1964. Reprinted 1968, Ann Arbor Paperback Series, 419 pages. 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). Kreiger, Michael. Tramp.
Laubach, Frank Charles. Why there are vagrants; a study based on an examination of one hundred men. Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, New York 1916.
Lennon, John. Boxcar Politics: The Hobo in U.S. Culture and Literature, 1869-1956. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2014.
Leen, Daniel, The Freight Hopper's Manual for North America: Hoboing In The 21st Century, Seattle: Ecodesigns Northwest Publishers, 112 pages, 1992.
Littlejohn, Duffy. Lonesome Whistle: A Collection of Short Stories. San Leandro: Zephyr Rhoades Press, 2002.
Littlejohn, Duffy. Hopping Freight Trains in America. San Leandro: Zephyr Rhoades Press, 1993.
Livingston, Leon "A#1". From Coast to Coast with Jack London. Erie: The A-no 1 Publishing Company, 1917.
Livingston, Leon "A#1". The Trail of the Tramp. Erie: The A-no 1 Publishing Company, 1913.
Livingston, Leon "A#1". The Ways of the Hobo. Erie: The A-no 1 Publishing Company, 1915.
Livingston, Leon "A#1". Traveling with Tramps. Erie: The A-no 1 Publishing Company, 1920.
Livingston, Leon "A#1". The Mother of Hobos. Erie: The A-no 1 Publishing Company, 1918.
Livingston, Leon "A#1". The Wife I Won. Erie: The A-no 1 Publishing Company, 1919.
Livingston, Leon "A#1". Here and There. Erie: The A-no 1 Publishing Company, 1921.
London, Jack, "Rods and Gunnels," Bookman, , pp. 176-79, October 1916.
--- "Adventures With the Police," The Cosmopolitan, pp. 417-23, March 1908.
--- The Road, New York: The MacMillan Company, 1907.
--- "Hoboes That Pass in the Nights," The Cosmopolitan, pp. 190-97, December 1907.
--- War of the Classes, New York: Macmillan, 1905. Reprinted 1970, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Literature House, 278 pages.
--- Jack London on the Road: The Tramp Diary and Other Hobo Writings, edited by Richard W. Etulain, Utah State University Press, 1979.
Lovald, Keith Arthur. From Hobohemia to Skid Row: The Changing Community of the Homeless Man. Ph.D dissertation. University of Minnesota, 1963.
Lummis, Charles Fletcher. A Tramp Across the Continent. New York: C. Scribner. Reprinted 1906. C. Scribner's Sons, 270 pages, 1892.
Lynn, Ethel. The Adventures of a Woman Hobo. New York: George H. Doran Company, 296 pages. An autobiographical account of the experience of the author and her husband in traveling by bicycle from Chicago to California, 1917.
Maharidge, Dale. The Last Great American Hobo. Roseville: Prima Publishing, 1993.
Mansfield, Drummond, "Memories of the Road," American History Illustrated. February 1987.
Mathers, Michael, Riding the Rails, Boston: Gambit, 136 pages with illustrations, 1973. The works of Kerouac and London inspired Mathers to take to riding the rails and ultimately the publication of this photographic essay about contemporary hobo life. Mathers presents the words ofvarious hoboes with brief contextualization. The photographs were all taken in the field when the respective dialogue took place.
McIntyre, Iain. On the Fly! Hobo Literature and Song, 1879-1941. Binghamton: PM Press, 2018.
McPherson, James and Miller Williams editors. Railroad: Trains and Train People in American Culture. New York: Random House, 1976.
Milburn, George. The Hobo's Hornbook: A Repertory for a Gutter Jongleur. New York: Ives Washburn, 1930.
Miller, Henry. On the fringe; the dispossessed in America. Lexington. Massachusetts Lexington Books 1991.
Minehan, Thomas. Boy and Girl Tramps of America (Cultures of Childhood). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2023.
--- Minehan, Thomas. Lonesome Road: The Way of Life of a Hobo. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson & Co., 1941.
Moon, Gypsie. Done and Been: Steel Rail Chronicles of American Hobos. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
O'Connell, Pamela LiCalzi. A Different Breed of Freighthoppers. New York Times, Aug. 20, 1998.
Payne, Roger, 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, 1939. Includes portraits and references. Written in response to requests for fuller facts and figures supporting the authors earlier pamphlet "The Hobo Philosopher".
Pindell, Terry. Making Tracks: An American Rail Odyssey. Grove Weidenfeld, New York, 1990.
Porrazzo-Ray, Julianna. Wisdom and Nonsense: My Adventures as a Train Rider and Hobo Queen. New York: MediaMix Productions, 2021.
Rahimian, Afsaneh. Migration and Mobility of the Urban Homeless. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Southern California, 1990.
Reitman, Ben L. (as told to), Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Box-Car Bertha as Told to Dr. Ben L. Reitman, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1937.
Ringenbach, Paul T., Tramps and Reformers, 1873-1916: The Discovery of Unemployment in New York, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1973. Originally a Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1970.
Rose, Lionel, 'Rogues and Vagabonds': Vagrant Underwold in Britain 1815-1985, New York and London: Routledge, 254 pages, 1988. 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.
Roy, Donald Francis, Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle, unpublished Masters thesis, University of Washington, 98 pages, 1935.
Schockman, Carl S. We Turned Hobo: A Narrative of Personal Experience. Columbus: F. J. Herr, Printing Co., 1937.
Shastid, Thomas Hall. Tramping to Failure: An Autobiography. Ann Arbor: George Wahr Publishing, 1937.
Spence, Clark, "Knights of the Fast Freight," American Heritage, pp.50-57, August 1976.
--- "Knights of the Tie and Rail - Tramps and Hoboes in the West," Western Historical Quarterly, pp. 5-16, January 1971.
Steam Train Maury Graham and Robert J. Hemming. Tales of the Iron Road: My Life as King of the Hobos. New York: Paragon House, 1990.
Stessin, Lawrence. "That Vanishing American: The Hobo." New York Times Magazine, August 18, 1940.
Stiff, Dean, The Milk & Honey Route: A Handbook for Hobos, NY Vanguard 1931. Includes such valuable knowledge as what the well-dressed hobo wears, & what to do should you meet a hobo with a naked lady tattooed on his arm.
Terkel, Studs. Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression. New York: Pantheon Books, 1970. Reprinted 1971, New York: Avon Books. Terkel interviewed over one hundred-sixty people from various backgrounds and orientations about their experiences during the Great Depression (1929). The chapter "Hard Travelin'" includes interviews of fourteen people who hoboed or had experiences with hoboes.
Tully, Jim. Beggars of Life: A Hobo Autobiography. Stirling: AK Press, 1924.
Vandertie, Adolph & Patrick Spielman. Hobo & Tramp Art: Carving An Authentic American Folk Tradition, Sterling Publishing Co., 128 pp, 1995. 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.
Wald, Tina. Railroad Man: The Legend of Lil' Jay. Kenner: Pelrin Press, 2011.
Wendinger, Renee. Last Train Home: An Orphan Train Story. Palm Beach: LPMG, 2015.
Whitey, Guitar. Riding Free: Short Stories of Steam and Diesel Hoboing. San Leandro: Zephyr Rhoades Press, 2002.
Williams, Cliff "Oats". One More Train to Ride: The Underground World of Modern American Hoboes. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.
--- Williams, Cliff "Oats," editor, Around the Jungle Fire: A Collection of Original Hobo Poetry, Deerfield, IL: Hobo Press, 44 pages, 1995. "Oats" has collected and edited this fine collection of poems written by hoboes and traveling folk including Liberty Justice, Guitar Whitey, Oklahoma Slim, Reefer Charlie, Luther the Jet, and others. Proceeds are given to the National Hobo Foundation.
Wormser, Richard. Hoboes: Wandering in America, 1870-1940. New York: Walker & Co, 1994.
Uys, Errol Lincoln. Ridin' the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression. T.E.Winter & Sons, 2014.
Vandertie, Adolph. Hobo and Tramp Art Carving: An Authentic American Folk Tradition. New York: Sterling Pub Co Inc., 1995.