Ocker Willis (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Large 8vo. (23 cm.) [6]1-74p. Yellow cloth with maroon letters on the spine. Black and white photo of author on rear of dust jacket. No noticeable wear to extremities, cloth clean and bright, else fine with no internal markings. Dust jacket somewhat shelfworn with a thumb-sized piece missing from the lower edge of the rear panel. "I am best known for my exploits in the Death Valley region where I set many records for long-distance hiking in extreme heat. .I worked for seven years for the Pacific Coast Borax Company at their winter tourist resort at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. Yes, I wrote a little booklet in 1935 entitled, 'Keeping Fit to Conquer Death Valley.' I sold many hundreds of copies to the tourists." [from the dust jacket] Dedication reads as follows: "To the knights and ladies of the boxcars who were my friends and companions for many a mile. Without their help I could never have written this story." This is an account of the days of the Great Depression and the resultant homeless, out of work people who traveled via hopping on a boxcar. The author notes that when they got to California, they could go to the "Hoovervilles", or, they "could join the crowd and go to the mission--one of the 'loathsome' missions--for a free meal." Though this book purports to be fiction, it was obviously written by someone who had firsthand knowledge of the movement of "bums", as they were called, from the east to the west and their experiences along the way.