T-Bone Slim
Matti Valentine Huhta (c.1890? – May 11?, 1942) better known by his pen name T-Bone Slim, was a humourist, poet, songwriter, hobo, and a labour activist in the Industrial Workers of the World.
Very little is known of his early life or his death. He was born in Ashtabula, Ohio to Finnish working-class immigrants sometime before the turn of the century, married at a young age, and left the area around 1910. He travelled around the United States as a migrant worker, at which point he became a member of the I.W.W. He contributed numerous articles and songs to the I.W.W. press and is widely regarded as one of the union's finest columnists and songwriters. He was a regular columnist for Industrial Solidarity and, later, for the Industrial Worker until his death in 1942 in New York City where he died under mysterious circumstances.
T-Bone Slim's best known works include "The Popular Wobbly", "The Mysteries of a Hobo's Life", and "The Lumberjack's Prayer". Later, his work would become a source of inspiration for the emerging American surrealist movement, and many of his songs were revived during the American Civil Rights movement.
Quotes
- "Wherever you find injustice, the proper form of politeness is attack".