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The Hobo News and The Bowery News

The Hobo News and The Bowery News, The Voice of Society’s Basement. [Collection of 23 Issues]

Mulkern, Pat "The Roaming Dreamer" et al, eds Tabloid format, offset printed on newsprint. Twenty-one issues of the Hobo News, including Vol. 5, No. 32, and Vol. 6, Nos. 13-20, 22-24, 31-33, 35-37, and 40-42, with numbers 68 and 72 of the Bowery News. A Little Fun to Match the Sorrow. A significant collection of the legendary hobo newspaper of the Bowery, which documented the life of itinerant, down and out Bohemia of New York City, and was the subject of an infamous court case concerning the free press which was documented in Life Magazine. "To the vast surprise of a Manhattan police court last week, a mussy little prisoner informed the judge that the issue at stake in his case was not whether he had been caught peddling in Times Square without a license, but whether or not the U.S. people were the enjoy the rights and privileges of a free press. the journal which was thus defended is like no other paper on earth. It is a peach and saffron tabloid full of hand-me-down line drawings and photographs of celebrated sundowners, sentimental verse, advertisements of rabbits' feet and 'surprise novelties.' . It is distributed in Manhattan by its editors, elsewhere by itinerants at 5 cents a copy - 10 cents 'if we can get it.' . Next to the editors of the New Yorker, publisher and staff of the Hobo News are probably the most picturesque group of journalists in the US. Editorial offices - and living quarters for some contributores - are in a cluttered cellar on Manhattan's noisy 17th street. Here publisher Mulkern is surrounded by an editorial board which includes 'Crown Prince Bozo,' Dean o'Brien and Otis O. (The Boomer Poet) Rodgers. Press, linotype and paper, bought on credit by the Roaming Dreamer in 1935, are paid for out of profits on the installment plan." Paper toned, as usual, with some issues split at the spine and the occasional stain. Aside from these faults, the issues remain supple and complete, and in much better condition than normally found. As one might suspect, the paper used was incredibly cheap and fragile, and these are the nicest copies we've seen for a spell.
  • $2,200
  • $2,200