Cowboys and Englishmen...do they mix? One Englishman set out to discover for himself what the western life was like in the 1880s. From Texas to British Columbia, Morley Roberts' character tramped around with hardly a dollar in his pocket, taking work where he could find it, riding the rails, and observing American ways. An English novelist and short-story writer, Roberts, was fond of the tramping style of travel. This immensely entertaining and funny account of his tramp around the "western avernus" (Morley's take on western pronunciation) of America is one of jewels of his body of writing. Well-known for his fiction writing, Morley spend three years tramping around Australia and America in the late 19th century and came home to write this book. His view of America and Americans is not only funny but a wonderful view into a world now gone. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE or download a sample.

The 1st volume (1896) includes important publications of 1895.

Shortlisted for the Literary Encyclopedia Book Prize 2022, The Tramp in British Literature, 1850-1950 offers a unique account of the emergence of a new conception of homelessness in the mid-nineteenth century. After arguing that the emergence of the figure of the tramp reflects the evolution of capitalism and disciplinary society in this period, The Tramp in British Literature uncovers a neglected body of "tramp literature" written by memoir and fiction writers, many of whom were themselves homeless. In analysing these works, it presents select texts as a unique and ignored contribution to a wider radical discourse defined by its opposition to a wider societal preoccupation with the need to be productive.