Hobohemia

Hobohemia is a low-rent district in a city where artistic bohemians and the down-and-outs or hobos mix. In Chicago from the turn of the century to circa 1940s this was Tower Town and the area often known as "The West Madison Stem"^[1] (Madison Street west of downtown) which was known as "Skid road" and home to thousands of transient men and women, and Ben Reitman's Hobo College.^[2] In New York City it was the neighborhood of the Bowery, and Greenwich Village.^[3] It was the title of a short story by Sinclair Lewis originally published in The Saturday Evening Post, which Lewis subsequently reworked into a three-act comedy which was first performed at the Greenwich Village Theatre in 1919.^[4]

A scene from Sinclair Lewis's 1919 play Hobohemia

A reference appears in the Rodgers and Hart song The Lady is a Tramp: "My Hobohemia is the place to be."^[3]

See also

• Skid row

References

1. "Hobohemia West Madison Street". University of Illinois Chicago.
2. Gershon, Livia (May 16, 2019). "The Hobo College of Hobohemia". JSTOR Daily.
3. Irving Lewis Allen (1995-02-23). The City in Slang. ISBN 9780195357769.
4. John Corbin (1919). "Drama". New York Times.

Further reading

• Beck, Frank O. (1956). Hobohemia. Richard R. Smith.