At the end of the 19th Century William Henry Davies hustled his way across America, working when he could, begging and stealing when he couldn't. He saw life on the breadline. He was beaten up in New Orleans, thrown into prison in Michigan and was present at lynchings in Tennessee, truly a diarist of the nether side of the American dream. After travelling with some of the most interesting and adventurous characters, an accident forced him to return to a similar poverty filled world back in England.

"The incorrigible Super-tramp who wrote this amazing book. I have read it through from beginning to end, and would have read more of it had there been anymore to read." George Bernard Shaw

William Henry Davies (1871 -1940), was a Welsh poet and writer. He spent most of his life as a tramp in the United States and United Kingdom, but became known as one of the most popular poets of his time. He was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, where his father died when he was two years old. His mother then abandoned him and his siblings when she remarried, leaving them to be brought up by their grandparents. He was a difficult and somewhat delinquent young man, and after failing to settle as an apprentice, took casual work and travelled.

The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (1908) is an account of his times in the USA 1893 - '99, during which he lived as a vagrant. He lost a leg while jumping a train in Canada, and wore a wooden leg. He returned to England, living a rough life in London in particular. His first book of poetry, in 1905, was the beginning of success and a growing reputation; he drew extensively on his experiences with the seamier side for material.