#000167
Hobo Poetry
Irving L. Stevens ("Fish Bones")
*Hobo Poetry* is a self-published collection of verse by Irving L. Stevens - better known as "Fish Bones," a Maine storyteller who rode the rails as a teenager during the 1930s and was later crowned the nation's Hobo King. The poems draw directly on that life on the road: boxcars, hunger, camaraderie, and the particular freedom and hardship of the Depression-era tramp. This is folk poetry in the truest sense - plain, rhyming, unpretentious, closer to campfire recitation than to the literary magazines - and its value lies in its authenticity rather than its polish. As a piece of American vernacular and Maine folklore it is a genuine curiosity. For readers interested in Depression history, oral tradition, or the vanished world of the rail-riding hobo, it offers a voice straight from the source.
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The author
Irving L. Stevens ("Fish Bones") was born in Surry, Maine, and hoboed across the country as a teenager during the Great Depression. A Yankee storyteller and poet, he was elected the National Hobo King for 1988-89 and wrote about his years on the rails.
The book
Hobo Poetry is a slim, self-published booklet gathering Stevens's verse about the hobo life. The poems are unschooled and direct, trading in the imagery of trains, camps, and the road rather than in literary ambition.
How to read it
Take it as folklore rather than fine art: a firsthand document of Depression-era rail-riding, preserved in the plain rhyming voice of someone who lived it. Its charm is inseparable from its homemade origins.
For more context
Set it beside Stevens's memoir of hoboing in the 1930s, or the songs of Woody Guthrie, for the wider culture of the American road.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Irving L. Stevens ("Fish Bones")
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Poetry
- Location
- Maine
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