Jim Tully

INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER SILVER MEDAL WINNER 2012 IN BIOGRAPHY & IBPA/BEN FRANKLIN AWARD FINALIST 2012 IN BIOGRAPHY“Bauer and Dawidziak tell the story cleanly, with pace, some verve and very impressive research. It’s a difficult job pulled off with deceptive ease.”—The Palm Beach Post“All told, a completely satisfying biography— and written in a style meant to be read.”—Donn HerronThe first biography of the vagabond, hard-boiled writer who rocked Hollywood during the Roaring TwentiesThe son of an Irish ditch-digger, Jim Tully (1886–1947) left his hometown of St. Marys, Ohio, in 1901, spending most of his teenage years in the company of hoboes. Drifting across the country as a “road kid,” he spent those years scrambling into boxcars, sleeping in hobo jungles, avoiding railroad cops, begging meals from back doors, and haunting public libraries. After six years on the road, he jumped off a railroad car in Kent, Ohio, with wild aspirations of becoming a writer. While chasing his dream, Tully worked as a chain maker, boxer, newspaper reporter, and tree surgeon. All the while he was crafting his memories of the road into a dark and astonishing chronicle of the American underclass.After moving to Hollywood and working for Charlie Chaplin, Tully began to write a stream of critically acclaimed books mostly about his road years, including Beggars of Life, Circus Parade, Blood on the Moon, Shadows of Men, and Shanty Irish. He quickly established himself as a major American author and used his status to launch a parallel career as a Hollywood journalist. Much as his gritty books shocked the country, his magazine articles on movies shocked Hollywood. Along the way, he picked up such close friends as W. C. Fields, Jack Dempsey, Damon Runyon, Lon Chaney, Frank Capra, and Erich von Stroheim. He also memorably crossed paths with Jack London, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, and Langston Hughes.The definitive biography of a remarkable writer, Jim Tully: American...