author
Edwin A. Brown
1857–1946
Best known for "Broke," The Man Without the Dime, this early 20th-century American writer turned firsthand observation into a vivid account of poverty, homelessness, and the lives of unemployed workers. His work stands out for its plainspoken, reform-minded effort to make social problems impossible to ignore.
1 Audiobook
"Broke," The Man Without the Dime
by Edwin A. Brown
About the author
Born in Port Byron, Illinois, on April 28, 1857, Edwin A. Brown introduced himself in "Broke," The Man Without the Dime as someone shaped by small-town beginnings near the Mississippi River. He later became known as an American author whose writing drew on direct experience rather than distance or theory.
Brown is chiefly remembered for "Broke," The Man Without the Dime (1913), a book that follows his travels through American cities as he investigated the conditions faced by homeless and unemployed men. The book mixes memoir, reporting, and social criticism, giving it the energy of lived experience and the purpose of a reform appeal.
Confirmed details about his wider life are limited from the sources reviewed, but records place his birth in 1857 and his death in San Diego, California, on June 9, 1946. Even with a modest surviving public profile, his best-known book remains a striking window into urban hardship and the reform spirit of its era.