WCL E01: T-Bone Slim – the laureate of the logging camps

First episode of the Working Class Literature podcast, about the life and work of radical hobo author T-Bone Slim. A prolific columnist for the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union in the United States, he was also a poet and songwriter as well as a barge captain working on the New York waterfront.

In this episode we speak to Dr Owen Clayton from the University of Lincoln and Slim’s great-grandnephew, John Westmoreland.

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WCL patreon supporters get exclusive access to a bonus episode here about Slim, including more information about his mysterious death, and some of his poems. (Working Class History patrons contributing $10 a month or more also get this exclusive access)

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More information on Slim, can be found in the links below:
– Puns, Politics, and Pork Chops: The ‘insignificant magnitude’ of T-Bone Slim by Dr Owen Clayton: workingclassstudiesjournal.files.wordpress.com/2…f
– Juice is Stranger Than Friction: Selected Writings of T-Bone Slim, edited by Franklin Rosemont: www.akpress.org/juiceisstrangerthanfriction.html
– T-Bone Slim papers held at the Newberry Library, Chicago: collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/ref/c…/id/53743

The Big Red Songbook, a massive compilation of over 250 IWW songs and much more, including ones by Slim is available here in the WCH online store. Proceeds help fund their work.

It was often thought that there were no photographs of T-Bone Slim in existence. However we are very happy to be able to host here online for the first time photographs of Slim and his wife, from his pre-hobo days. Photos courtesy of the Newberry Library, collected by Franklin and Penelope Rosemont