Hungry Men, first published in 1935, is a Depression-era novel portraying an unemployed musician, Acel Strecker, who travels America as a hobo, taking odd-jobs when he can, and begging for food when he can’t. His experiences, both good and bad, paint a vivid picture of life in America in the 1930s. While in New York, Acel meets and falls in love with an unemployed typist, and together they share a number of adventures. Eventually, Acel forms a street band in Chicago, but its members are arrested when they get into a fight for refusing to play the Communist anthem, the “International.” However, a sympathetic judge applauds the group’s patriotism, and Acel and company are released, with hopes for a brighter future. Author Edward Anderson (1905-1969) worked first as a journalist in the Southwest before wanderlust struck and he rode the rails, slept in parks and flophouses, and ate in soup-kitchens.
