'Beggars of Life: A Hobo Autobiography'   Save
Ohio History Connection Archives/Library
Description: Jim Tully's autobiographical novel, Beggars of Life: A Hobo Autobiography, chronicles the author's youth as a vagabond in the years following his parents' deaths. Tully was sent to the St. Joseph Orphan Asylum in Cincinnati, Ohio, after his mother died when he was seven years old. He left the orphanage when he was eleven to work on a farm. By age fourteen, however, Tully left the farm and began wandering around Ohio, stopping at public libraries to read whatever he could. After trying several different careers, including boxing, Tully became a reporter for the Akron Press and Beacon Journal. He began writing and was published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1911. Beggars of Life, published in 1924, is part of a five-book series on Tully's life. It is 336 pages long and measures 5.5" x 8.5" (13.97 x 21.59 cm). Other novels in the series are Jarnegan (1925), Adventures in Interviewing (1931), and Laughter in Hell (1932). A film version of Beggars of Life was released in 1928. In addition to writing about his own life, Tully published interviews of many Hollywood stars in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. mong them were Greta Garbo, W. C. Fields, and Clark Gable. Due to his honest and probing interviewing style, Tully became known as "the most feared man in Hollywood." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om3255_4419305_003
Subjects: Literary Ohio; Daily Life; Orphans; Autobiographies
Places: St. Marys (Ohio); Auglaize County (Ohio)