Between the American Civil War and the end of the nineteenth century a population of rootless craftsmen drifted from town to town working as typesetters, editors, and printers in newspaper offices. Some like Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and Horace Greeley became famous authors; others driven by drink or personal tragedy became the stuff of legend. This collection gathers the stories of these adventurers in engaging and sometimes farcical tales from the diamond mines of South Africa to the mean streets of Nevada City where you had to step over bullet-riddled corpses on your way to the bar.
