David Mason Fine and Rare Books

FLYNT, Josiah. Notes of an Itinerant Policeman.  

Boston: L.C. Page & Company, 1900. First edition. Sm. 8vo., orig. blue decorated cloth, (vi), (7)-252pp. Some rubbing to the spine ends but still a better than very good copy of this non-fiction account of criminals and crime.

Josiah Flynt Willard [1869 – 1907], who wrote under the name Josiah Flynt, was an American sociologist and author. After living a very chequered life as a youth (reform schools), Flynt spent eight months ‘tramping’ which led to his career as a writer. ‘After several years of experience as a vagrant, he had published Tramping with Tramps in 1899, a picaresque study. His further works dealing with the lower and criminal classes include “The Powers that Prey” (1900), a collection of short stories written in collaboration with Alfred Hodder (writing pseudonymously as Francis Walton), “Notes of an Itinerant Policeman” (1900), “The World of Graft” (1901), a volume of short stories, and “The Little Brother” (1902), his only sustained attempt in fiction.’