Jim Tully American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler By Paul J. Bauer and Mark Dawidziak The first full­length biography of

Jim Tully, the “hobo author” who

became a literary star as a hard­

boiled chronicler of both

America’s underclass and the

Hollywood elite

Jim Tully (1886­1947) Let Paul J. Bauer and Mark Dawidziak introduce you to Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler. Overcoming years of poverty and struggle, Tully achieved a critical and com­ mercial success during the 1920s and ’30s that may qualify him as the greatest long shot in American literature. Although largely forgotten today, Tully was a literary superstar, writing about the American underclass: hobos, carnival workers, con artists, prostitutes, drifters, grifters, and boxers. Along the way, this “hobo author” worked for Charlie Chaplin, interviewed James Joyce and picked up such close pals as W.C. Fields, H.L. Mencken, Frank Capra, Wallace Beery, Jimmy Cagney, Jack Dempsey, Lon Chaney, and Damon Runyon.

Born near St. Marys, Ohio, to an Irish immigrant ditch­digger and his wife, Tully spent six years in “If Tully were a Russian, read in translation, all the a Cincinnati orphanage and another six years as Professors would be hymning him. He has all of a youthful vagabond. He left the road in Kent, Ohio, working as a chainmaker, professional box­ Gorky’s capacity for making vivid the miseries of poor er and tree surgeon. He moved to Hollywood in and helpless men, and in addition he has a humor 1912, when he began writing in earnest. His liter­ that no Russian could conceivably have.” ary career took two distinct paths. Writing about movie stars, directors and producers, he became — H. L. Mencken known as the most­hated man in Hollywood—a title he relished. Less lucrative but closer to his “That Jim Tully wrote at all was a miracle; that he heart were the books he wrote about his life on wrote so well is a gift to the world.” the road, the American underclass, and his Irish­ — John Sayles American family. Books by Jim Tully

Kent State University Press has reprinted four of Jim Tully’s most acclaimed books

Edited with introductions by Tully biographers Paul J. Bauer and Mark Dawidziak

Beggars of Life Circus Parade Shanty Irish The Bruiser First published in 1924, Based on Tully’s time Tully’s most deeply The Bruiser is the story this novelistic memoir working with small­time personal book, Shanty of Shane Rory, a drifter impressed readers and carnivals in the South, Irish was published in who turns to boxing and reviewers with its Circus Parade presents 1928. “Shanty Irish is a works his way up the remarkable vitality and the sordid side of circus chunk of real life,” wrote heavyweight ranks. Like honesty. Tully’s devotion life. Tully’s use of fast­ Upton Sinclair. “It made Tully, Shane starts out as to Mark Twain and Jack paced vignettes and me feel human and a road kid who takes up London taught him the unforgettable characters humble, which is a good prizefighting. While The importance of giving the made this book one of thing for anybody.” H.L. Bruiser is not an reader a strong sense of his most successful, both Mencken said, “In Shanty autobiographical work, it place, and this he does commercially and Irish, it seems to me, he does draw heavily on brilliantly, again and critically. Published in has gone beyond any of Tully’s experiences of the again. This is the book 1927, it’s also one of his his work of the past. The road and ring. More than that defined Tully’s hard­ grittiest works. Among book is not only brilliantly just a riveting picture of boiled style and set the the cast is Cameron, the realistic; it also has fine life in the ring, The Bruis­ pattern for the twelve shifty and sardonic circus poetic quality.” The story er is a portrait of an books that followed over owner; Lila, the lonely of the Tullys and the America that Jim Tully the next two decades. four­hundred­pound Lawlers, it is considered knew from the bottom Startling in its originality strong woman; and the first book to address up. Published in 1936, and intensity, Beggars of Blackie, an amoral drug the Irish­American immi­ the novel was dedicated Life is a breakneck jour­ addict. grant experience from a to Tully’s friend, “fellow ney made while clinging serious perspective. road­kid” Jack Dempsey. to the lowest rungs of Foreword by Harvey the social ladder. Pekar Foreword by John Sayles Foreword by Gerald Early

The Kent State University Press │ www.kentstateuniversitypress.com 1118 University Library │ 1125 Risman Drive │ P.O. Box 5190 │ Kent, OH 44242 Phone: (330) 672­7913 │Fax: (330) 672­3104 │Email: [email protected]