Program at library touts book on Jim Tully

Paul J. Bauer and Mark Dawidziak, authors of the recently published Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler, will be giving a talk about Ohio’s colorful Irish-American “hobo author” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, in the Main Library Auditorium of the Akron-Summit County Public Library. Ken Burns, who wrote the foreword for the biography, calls this study of Jim Tully “wonderful, hugely important.”

The multi-media presentation will include pictures from the biography as well as footage from the 1928 film version of Tully’s Beggars of Life and the 1930 movie featuring Tully, Way for a Sailor. Bauer and Dawidziak also will be signing copies of the biography published by Kent State University.

The co-authors discovered Tully in 1992, spending the next 19 years researching and writing their book. Although largely forgotten today, Tully was a literary superstar of the 1920s and '30s. He also spent time in Akron, working briefly for both the Akron Beacon Journal and the Akron Press.

Considered the father of the hardboiled school of literature, Tully wrote about the American underclass: hobos, carnival workers, con artists and boxers. Along the way, he worked for Charlie Chaplin, interviewed James Joyce and picked up such pals as W.C. Fields, Lon Chaney, H.L. Mencken, Frank Capra, Jimmy Cagney, Jack Dempsey, Erich von Stroheim and Damon Runyon.

The free program is presented by the Akron-Summit County Public Library and Friends of the Main Library. Auditorium doors open at 6:30 p.m. Parking in the High/Market deck is free for those arriving after 6 p.m. Call 330-643-9035, or visit www.akronlibrary.org for more information.