On the Fly!

Overview

Shining a light on the lost voices and creative contributions of Hobohemia

The first anthology of its kind, On The Fly! collects dozens of stories, poems, songs, stories, and articles produced by hoboes to create an insider history of the subculture's rise and fall. Adrenaline-charged tales of train hopping, scams, and political agitation are combined with humorous and satirical songs, razor sharp reportage and unique insights into the lives of the women and men who crisscrossed America in search of survival and adventure. With little of the original memoirs, literature, and verse remaining in print, this collection, aided by a glossary of hobo vernacular and numerous illustrations and photos, provides a comprehensive and entertaining guide to the life and times of a uniquely American icon.

Reviews

"This book is a tantalizing boxcar ride back through the history of the hobo, all told from the hobo's point of view. What more could anyone ask?" —Paul Garon, coeditor, What's the Use of Walking When There's a Freight Train Going Your Way: Black Hoboes and Their Songs and author, Blues and the Poetic Spirit

"On The Fly! gathers and reassembles forgotten fragments of a lost counterculture that was once so vast it practically defined the working-class experience in the United States. Its call was so alluring to young men of all classes that the hobo became the most commonly depicted character in American popular culture between 1900 and 1920. This collection represents the view from within, the stories and perspectives of those who lived the life of The Road, carrying its burdens and glorying in its freedoms. On the Fly! is indispensable for understanding not only the hobo life but also the on-the-ground history of our urban industrial order." —Todd DePastino, author, Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America

"A wonderful and definitive collection of hobo prose, poetry, and song. Iain McIntyre has painstakingly collected a rich array of hobo writing that together speaks to the rich and varied lives these itinerant travellers inhabited along the iron highway." —John Lennon, author, Boxcar Politics: The Hobo in U.S. Culture and Literature, 1869–1956

"On The Fly! is a brilliant introduction to the subject, and more than that, a moving tribute to the creativity of men and women at the margins of society." —Paul Buhle, coeditor, Wobblies! A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World

"On the Fly! is a wide-ranging, fascinating collection of primary sources about homelessness from the era that defined the rise and, in the 1930s, the crisis of industrial society in the U.S. Well-known writers like Jack London, Jim Tully, and Tom Kromer are represented, but what sets this volume apart from many studies is its emphasis on first-person views of the experiences of the homeless themselves. This is social history at its best." —Kenneth L. Kusmer, professor of history, Temple University and author, Down and Out, On the Road: The Homeless in American History

"In an era when tent cities spring up in prosperous American metropolitan areas, the lives captured in On the Fly! feel less comfortably distant than we might like. That is perhaps why the best of these classic accounts of "bumming around" retain all their simmering anger and desperate optimism." —Ernest Hilbert, The Washington Post

"With little of the original memoirs, literature, and verse remaining in print, this collection, aided by a glossary of hobo vernacular and numerous illustrations and photos, provides a comprehensive and entertaining guide to the life and times of a uniquely American icon. Read on to enter a world where hobos, tramps, radicals, and bums gather in jungles, flop houses, and boxcars; where gandy dancers, bindlestiffs, and timber beasts roam the rails once more." —Clint Weiler, www.screamingtoilet.com/books/

On The Fly! - Hobo Literature Songs 1879 - 1941 (with Ian McIntyre and Van Walker live in the studio) —Interview, PBS 106.7 FM

Author Biography

Iain McIntyre is a Melbourne-based author, musician, and community radio broadcaster who has written a variety of books on activism, history, and music. Previous publications include Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture from the 1950 to 1980, How to Make Trouble and Influence People: Pranks, Protest, Graffiti and Political Mischief-Making from Across Australia, Wild About You: The Sixties Beat Explosion in Australia and New Zealand, and Tomorrow Is Today: Australia in the Psychedelic Era, 1966–70.