Railroad adventurer
Adventurers of the rail track (also adventures of Tramps , Eng. The Road ) is a 1907 published autobiographical story of the author Jack London in his time as a tramp .
content
Jack London reports on his time as a tramp after the economic crisis towards the end of the 19th century . You get to know the dangers and hardships of life as a tramp. Centrally important is traveling as a hobo by train on one of the front cars, which could not be entered by the other cars through accordion doors, a so-called “blind man”, or under the train, always in danger of being “thrown down”. The author also discusses “General” Kelly's army of unemployed and a prison term.
The first German translation by Erwin Magnus appeared in 1924. Since London relentlessly describes the reality of the vagrants in the United States, the book was also a popular publication in the GDR , with six editions by 1964.
filming
The story, along with the novel Die Kreuzfahrt der Dazzler , was used by the screenwriter and film producer Walter Ulbrich to create a common history of the two protagonists in the four-part ZDF film adaptation of London's novel The Sea Wolf , which does not exist in the original novel .
In 1973, directed by Robert Aldrich, the film A Train for Two Scoundrels was released , the script of which is based on London's tale, with Lee Marvin as the hobo and Ernest Borgnine as the brutal train driver. The action here, however, was moved to 1933, the time of the Great Depression .
literature
- Jack London: Adventurer of the Rail Line , Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1984, ISBN 3-423-00948-9 .
- Jack London: Adventure of a Tramp , New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1967
