George Milburn Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

George Milburn (1916-1966) dropped out of college in 1925, drawn to the road and living for a time in Chicago and New Orleans and working at a variety of jobs. In 1929 he enrolled at the University of Oklahoma, married soon after, and published The Hobo's Hornbook (1930), a collection of hobo ballads and lore picked up on the road. Soon called "the Hobo Poet," he drew praise from H. L. Mencken and others, and was soon publishing stories in The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post and Harper's, as well as the magazines he mentions in this letter. Two volumes of short stories followed: Oklahoma Town (1931) and No More Trumpets (1933). These books contained often unflattering images of the Oklahoma of his youth. His first novel, Catalogue followed in 1936, his last Julie, in 1956. In the 1940s he wrote scripts for films and radio.