List of books and films about hobos and freighthopping

This is a list of books and movies in which hobos and/or freighthopping are prominently featured or are a major plot device.

[edit] Books

This literature-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Nelson Algren: Somebody in Boots and The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren
Charles Ashleigh: The Rambling Kid
James Blish: Cities in Flight (Actual hobos do not appear but the concept is central.)
James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice
Fannie Flagg: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe
John Hodgman: The Areas of My Expertise (features a list of 700 absurd hobo names)
William Kennedy: Ironweed
Jack Kerouac: The Dharma Bums and On the Road
Louis L'Amour: Hanging Woman Creek
Dr. Ben Reitman: Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha
John Ridley: The Drift
Lucius Shepard: Two Trains Running
Upton Sinclair: The Jungle
John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men
Nick Cave: And the Ass Saw the Angel
Valerie Tripp: Kit Saves the Day

Edward Abbey: The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West
Jack Black: You Can't Win
Ted Conover: Rolling Nowhere
Eddie Joe Cotton: Hobo
Oscar Dexter Brooks: Legs: An authentic story of life on the road
W.H. Davies: The Autobiography of a Supertramp
Todd DePastino: Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America
Gaddis and Long (eds): Panzram: A Journal of Murder
"Steam Train" Maury Graham: Tales of the Iron Road: My Life as King of the Hobos
Woody Guthrie: Bound for Glory
Louis L'Amour: Education of a Wandering Man
Daniel Leen: The Freighthoppers Manual for North America
Duffy Littlejohn: Hopping Freight Trains In America
A-No-1 (Leon Ray Livingston): From Coast to Coast with Jack London
Jack London: The Road
Gypsy Moon: Done and Been: Steel Rail Chronicles of American Hobos
Lloyd Morain: The Human Cougar
Bill Palmini: Murder on the Rails
Jim Tully: Beggars of Life
Errol Lincoln Uys: Riding the Rails:Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression
Guitar Whitey: Ridin' Free
Cliff Williams: One More Train to Ride
Anonymous: Evasion

This film, television, or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Danger Lights: 1930 film about a hobo who becomes a railroad engineer
Wild Boys of the Road: 1933 drama about runaway youth, intended to scare kids away from hopping freights but had quite the opposite effect
The Footloose Heiress: 1937 film starring Ann Sheridan and Craig Reynolds.
Sullivan's Travels: 1941 Comedy and tragedy about the myth and reality of the hobo life, from writer/director Preston Sturges
Boxcar Bertha: 1972 film by Martin Scorsese
Emperor of the North Pole (also known as Emperor of the North): 1973 film starring Lee Marvin, Keith Carradine and Ernest Borgnine
Scarecrow: 1973 film starring Gene Hackman and Al Pacino
Hard Times: 1975 film starring Charles Bronson
Bound for Glory: 1976 biographical drama about the life of Woody Guthrie
The Journey of Natty Gann: 1985 a girl named Natty Gan rides across the country during the Great Depression
Runaway Train: 1985 film starring Jon Voight and Eric Roberts as escaped convicts
Ironweed:1987 film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Follows a schizophrenic drifter.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?: 2000 comedy
Rail Kings: 2002 film starring Robert Spediacci and Bobb Hopkins (incorrectly listed on IMDB and several other movie sites as a 2005 film)
Big Fish: 2003 Edward Bloom mentions how he once hopped three trains

The Last American Hobo: 1967 "documentary" with staged interviews and lots of overdubbing
Riding the Rails: 1997 documentary about young hobos during the Great Depression
Train on the Brain: 2000 first-person documentary about modern-day freighthoppers.
The American Hobo: 2003 documentary narrated by Ernest Borgnine and featuring, among others, Merle Haggard and James A. Michener
Catching Out: 2003 documentary about modern alternative-culture youth riding trains
Long Gone: 2003 documentary. Features real modern hoboes and tramps
Who is Bozo Texino?: 2005 documentary about the 100-year-old tradition of hoboing by Bill Daniel