The Bowery News — originally the Hobo News — was a kind of raffish paper that celebrated the culture of the Bowery. It included cartoons, verses, racing tips, and news and gossip about hoboes, bums, panhandlers, barflies, hitch-hikers, tramps, pearl-divers (dishwashers), and the rest of “Society’s basement.”
John wrote for it in his teens; the photo shows him outside the office when he was nineteen.
And here, for good measure, is a picture of the Brakebeam Kid, also from 1949.
All of which leads us to a Keel bio and poem from the Bowery News, December 15, 1948. The novel mentioned was West of Washington Square — lost long ago. And I assume that the joke that follows was just filler added by the editor.
I had no idea Keel’s range extended to poetry.
Thanks, as always, for sharing.
Comment by John Lacey — March 30, 2010 @ 7:19 pm
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[…] Kessie, turned down pieces on Hugo Gernsback (the founder of Amazing Stories) and on the colorful Hobo News that had printed some of John’s first poems. But he was interested in an article on UFOs, […]
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