Tom Kromer


Thomas Michael Kromer was an American writer known for his one novel, Waiting for Nothing, an account of vagrant or hobo life during the 1930s.

Biography

Kromer was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia. He wrote his novel after five years of living as a hobo, riding trains and traveling across the United States. He spent 15 months in CCC camp but was mostly living as a vagabond. He died in Cabell County, West Virginia.

''Waiting for Nothing''

Dedicated "to Jolene, who turned off the gas," the work is a realistic account of life as a homeless man during the Great Depression. There is no overarching theme to the novel, which is a collection of anecdotes. Except for a few stories, Kromer said the incidents in the novel were autobiographical.
Straightforward, declarative sentences in the tough-guy argot of the time are characteristic of Kromer, as are spare descriptions of grim scenes. The settings include rescue missions, flop houses, abandoned buildings and the sidewalk outside a nice restaurant. In one chapter, the narrator slowly comes to realize that the pitch-black boxcar he is riding in contains another rider, who is quietly, slowly, stalking him.
Waiting for Nothing was first published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1935, reissued by Hill & Wang in 1968, and, in a definitive edition edited by Arthur D. Casciato and James L.W. West III, reprinted as Waiting for Nothing and Other Writings by the University of Georgia Press in 1986.

Agent

Kromer's literary agent was Maxim Lieber.