List of books and films about hobos and freighthopping
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of books and movies in which hobos and/or freighthopping are prominently featured or are a major plot device.
Contents |
[edit] Books
This literature-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
[edit] Fiction
- Nelson Algren: Somebody in Boots and The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren
- Charles Ashleigh: The Rambling Kid
- James Blish: Cities in Flight (Actual hobos do not appear but the concept is central.)
- James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice
- Fannie Flagg: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe
- John Hodgman: The Areas of My Expertise (features a list of 700 absurd hobo names)
- William Kennedy: Ironweed
- Jack Kerouac: The Dharma Bums and On the Road
- Louis L'Amour: Hanging Woman Creek
- Dr. Ben Reitman: Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha
- John Ridley: The Drift
- Lucius Shepard: Two Trains Running
- Upton Sinclair: The Jungle
- John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men
- Nick Cave: And the Ass Saw the Angel
- Valerie Tripp: Kit Saves the Day
[edit] Nonfiction
- Edward Abbey: The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West
- Jack Black: You Can't Win
- Ted Conover: Rolling Nowhere
- Eddie Joe Cotton: Hobo
- Oscar Dexter Brooks: Legs: An authentic story of life on the road
- W.H. Davies: The Autobiography of a Supertramp
- Todd DePastino: Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America
- Gaddis and Long (eds): Panzram: A Journal of Murder
- "Steam Train" Maury Graham: Tales of the Iron Road: My Life as King of the Hobos
- Woody Guthrie: Bound for Glory
- Louis L'Amour: Education of a Wandering Man
- Daniel Leen: The Freighthoppers Manual for North America
- Duffy Littlejohn: Hopping Freight Trains In America
- A-No-1 (Leon Ray Livingston): From Coast to Coast with Jack London
- Jack London: The Road
- Gypsy Moon: Done and Been: Steel Rail Chronicles of American Hobos
- Lloyd Morain: The Human Cougar
- Bill Palmini: Murder on the Rails
- Jim Tully: Beggars of Life
- Errol Lincoln Uys: Riding the Rails:Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression
- Guitar Whitey: Ridin' Free
- Cliff Williams: One More Train to Ride
- Anonymous: Evasion
[edit] Films
This film, television, or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
[edit] Fiction
- Danger Lights: 1930 film about a hobo who becomes a railroad engineer
- Wild Boys of the Road: 1933 drama about runaway youth, intended to scare kids away from hopping freights but had quite the opposite effect
- The Footloose Heiress: 1937 film starring Ann Sheridan and Craig Reynolds.
- Sullivan's Travels: 1941 Comedy and tragedy about the myth and reality of the hobo life, from writer/director Preston Sturges
- Boxcar Bertha: 1972 film by Martin Scorsese
- Emperor of the North Pole (also known as Emperor of the North): 1973 film starring Lee Marvin, Keith Carradine and Ernest Borgnine
- Scarecrow: 1973 film starring Gene Hackman and Al Pacino
- Hard Times: 1975 film starring Charles Bronson
- Bound for Glory: 1976 biographical drama about the life of Woody Guthrie
- The Journey of Natty Gann: 1985 a girl named Natty Gan rides across the country during the Great Depression
- Runaway Train: 1985 film starring Jon Voight and Eric Roberts as escaped convicts
- Ironweed:1987 film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Follows a schizophrenic drifter.
- O Brother, Where Art Thou?: 2000 comedy
- Rail Kings: 2002 film starring Robert Spediacci and Bobb Hopkins (incorrectly listed on IMDB and several other movie sites as a 2005 film)
- Big Fish: 2003 Edward Bloom mentions how he once hopped three trains
[edit] Children's fiction
- Frosty the Snowman: 1969 animated Rankin-Bass television special
- The Billion Dollar Hobo: 1977 movie starring Tim Conway
[edit] Documentary
- The Last American Hobo: 1967 "documentary" with staged interviews and lots of overdubbing
- Riding the Rails: 1997 documentary about young hobos during the Great Depression
- Train on the Brain: 2000 first-person documentary about modern-day freighthoppers.
- The American Hobo: 2003 documentary narrated by Ernest Borgnine and featuring, among others, Merle Haggard and James A. Michener
- Catching Out: 2003 documentary about modern alternative-culture youth riding trains
- Long Gone: 2003 documentary. Features real modern hoboes and tramps
- Who is Bozo Texino?: 2005 documentary about the 100-year-old tradition of hoboing by Bill Daniel
