Literary accounts of tramping, bumming and hoboing
 

So far I know The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by W H Davies and Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

Who can recommend me some more great tramp reads?

Those two examples are from the first half of the 20th Century but I'm interested in authentic and readable accounts from any period.

When I saw the thread title, I immediately thought of Thomas De Quincey's autobiography Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821).

It reads much like Nabokov's Lolita in terms of the challenge of whether you should trust the narrator.

Are you looking for a book/novel medium, something by which you can hold in your hands and lazily enjoy reading, or do you not mind a documentary-esque type of film (not necessarily a "feature") as well?

I can probably rummage you up a few examples, but the thing that is getting me tripped up is that "literary" part; are you looking to want to read a transcript of recalled events from someone famous, who was also once-downtrodden, or does the person in question's accounts have to be someone who is actually famous for being a poor nobody, and then turned into a renowned "literary" (otherwise can always be recognized as an author by occupation)?



While I'd still love to hear any elaboration you could offer, I'll leave this little account of a teenage vagabond:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ku...7x7zo1_400.jpg
Colton Harris-Moore, the barefoot boy bandit, outfoxes sheriffs

(ah, it seems you need to register and/or subscribe to view the original context of the News Story. I'll just the original text article in its entirety.)

Courtesy of The Sunday Times.

Thanks Baraka I'm going to check out your suggestion, I expect something as old as 1825 should be online somewhere.

And thanks Jetée for that interesting article. I hope that kid doesn't end up getting shot. I was meaning books when I first wrote the post but any documentary films would also be of interest - especially historical ones. There must be a few depression-era ones. I think what I meant by 'literary' was that the account, book or work would be generally considered a work of literature, have been published by a known publisher and be somewhat well-known.

Even if the author wasn't actually homeless the whole time but was pretty close to that lifestyle - e.g. Charles Bukowski. And even if the account wasn't autobiographical but was related by someone else who was close to them but not actually living that life - e.g. Clarence Rook's Hooligan Nights. This can include books about hobo types who may have been illiterate but were interesting enough characters or had interesting enough lives that books were written about them.