On Hobos and Homelessness

Anderson (1889-1986) was a hobo when he began collecting ethnographic information about his fellow hobos for his University of Chicago master's thesis in sociology. Because of the academic snobbery of the time, he couldn't openly acknowledge his identity as a hobo until long after his thesis was published as The Hobo, in 1923. The book presented hobos as hardworking, transient, skilled and unskilled laborers who helped extend and develop America's last frontiers. Universities continued to shun Anderson until, at the age of 74, he was hired as a professor at Memorial University in Newfoundland. With the exception of the textbookish final section (""Urban Context, Work, and Leisure""), which doesn't have anything to do with hobos or homelessness, Anderson writes straightforwardly, more like a reporter than a sociologist. The most interesting parts of this selection of chapters from six books and four articles are excerpts from Anderson's autobiography, in which he describes migrating with his parents and siblings across the Northwest, and a narrative introduction of the circumstances that led to his writing The Hobo. The book, however, is not cohesive, and there are needless repetitions of observations and detail. On the other hand, one very stray piece, ""Some Dimensions of Time,"" is excellent. The photos, including some of Dorothea Lange, are memorable, yet not exactly in step with the writer's topics or locales. There is no photo of Anderson, who is, as much as hobos and homelessness, the subject of this book. (Jan.)