<DIV><P>A bestseller in 1924, this vivid piece of outlaw history has inexplicably faded from the public consciousness. Jim Tully takes us across the seamy underbelly of pre-WWI America on freight trains, and inside hobo jungles and brothels while narrowly averting railroad bulls (cops) and wardens of order. </P><P>Written with unflinching honesty and insight, <I>Beggars of Life</I> follows Tully from his first ride at age thirteen, choosing life on the road over a deadening job, through his teenage years of learning the ropes of the rails and -living one meal to the next. </P><P>Tully&rsquo;s direct, confrontational approach helped shape the hard-boiled school of writing, and later immeasurably influenced the noir genre. <I>Beggars of Life</I> was the first in Tully&rsquo;s five-volume memoir, dubbed the "Underworld Edition," recalling his transformation from road-kid to novelist, journalist, Hollywood columnist, chain maker, boxer, circus handyman, and tree surgeon.</P><P><B>Jim Tully </B>(1891&ndash;1947) was a best-selling novelist and popular Hollywood journalist in the 1920s and &rsquo;30s. Known as "Cincinnati Red" during his years as a road-kid, he counted prizefighter and publicist of Charlie Chaplin among his many jobs. He is considered (with Dashiel Hammett) one of the inventors of the hard-boiled style of American writing.</P></DIV>