Tom Kromer

Who was Tom Kromer?

Tom Kromer was an American writer known for his one novel, Waiting for Nothing, an account of vagrant or hobo life during the nineteen-thirties. Dedicated "to Jolene, who turned off the gas," the work is a realistic account of life as a homeless man during the Great Depression. 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.