From Bughouse Square to the Beat Generation: Selected RavingsA unique combination of tavern, university and nonstop wild party, the College in its heyday (1951-1961) was for many years Chicago's outstanding outsider outpost. The writings collected here by the College's Founder and Janitor, Slim Brundage (1903-1990), chronicle the colorful history of what may well be the oldest continuous dissident working class intellectual community in the US. Hobo, Wobbly, Soapboxer, veteran of Bughouse Square and the Dil Pickle, 'little theater' playwright/actor, president emeritus of the Hobo College in the 1930s, housepainter, humorist, and chief architect of the scandalous Beatnik Party during the 1960 elections, Brundage was very much a maker of the history he writes about. Here are exciting first-person accounts of tramping, open forums, the fabulous Pickle, the hobo colleges, the Radical Bookshop, and the hilarious story of the College of Complexes as it evolved from the last of the old-time free-speech forums into Chicago's Number One 'beatnik bistro'. Franklin Rosemont's introduction discusses the IWW/hobohemian roots of the College, outlines the Janitor's radical (and Dadaist) critique of education, and relates Brundage's life, the College and Chicago's hobo/beat scenes to the broader struggles for a better, freer, truly egalitarian and non-exploitative society. |
Contents
Acknowledgements | 7 |
A Note on the Texts | 48 |
A Lost Tradition | 56 |
Copyright | |
13 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
ain't American anarchists Axel Beat Beatnik Beatnik Party Ben Reitman Bibliography Bill Smith Brundage's Bug Club Bughouse Square Burr McCloskey called Charles H Chicago City College of Complexes College's Communist cops Cosmic Kid Curriculum Dada Dave Roediger Dil Pickle Club Dil Pickler dreams Franklin Rosemont Fred Thompson free speech going Haymarket Hobo College hobohemia Illinois intellectual Jack Conroy Jack Jones Jack Micheline jail Janitor Joffre Stewart John Loughman Kerr Company Kerr Publishing Company Knowledge Box labor later lecture live Lucy Parsons Max Bodenheim Nelson Algren never night Nina Spies old-timers open forums Painters play poet poetry president Radical Bookshop Reitman revolutionary Rosemont says Skid Road Slim Brundage soapboxer Socialist speakers Statistical Slim Studio Players T-Bone Slim talk thing tion told tramp trying typescript Union Wobbly Wobs writing wrote York